Hartford girls basketball ends 14-year championship drought
· Yahoo Sports
BARRE ― No. 2 Hartford girls basketball sent off its star senior Charlotte Jasmin in the best way possible ... a champion.
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Jasmin led all scorers with 15 points as the Hurricanes controlled the game from the start earning a 37-20 victory over No. 1 Lamoille, in the Division II girls basketball championship game at the Barre Auditorium on Saturday, March 7.
Hartford improved to 2-0 all-time in championship games, snapping a 14-year title drought. The win also denied the Lancers a chance at an undefeated season.
"This is the best way to end," Jasmin said. "I didn't want to leave this gym tonight being like 'Man I could have done better, we could have won it.' We came in here from tipoff and knew this is what we wanted."
Jasmin added the elusive title to her legacy joining Peyton Guay, Jade Huntington and Jasmyn Huntington as the state's other 2,000-point scorers to win at least one championship. The senior ended her career with a total of 2,025 points which ranks as the fifth most by a girls basketball player all-time in state history.
Despite possessing one of the top girls basketball players in the state, the Hurricanes are a team built on defense. That's what head coach Steve Landon and the rest of the staff focused on during the last two days and that work paid off.
Hartford took advantage of Lamoille's long possessions coming up with turnovers.
"They were holding the ball for a little bit and we were just up there (on defense)," Jasmin said. "If they kept running clock that's good for us since we like playing fast."
The defense did its job of playing confidently and the offense withstood Lamoille's run in the third quarter that shrunk the lead down to 20-17. Hartford would proceed to end the game on a 17-3 run. Seniors Hailey Vanasse and Jasmin combined for 13 of those points.
For Landon this is his second championship having coached that historic 2012 team before flipping to the boys side to coach his sons. Now, Landon has completed the third season in his second stint leading the girls team.
"There were a lot of similarities, it's insane how many," Landon said. "I'm so happy for these kids and our community, it's amazing. I won't know for a couple of days (how I feel)."
Lamoille only managed 10 points in each half against the Hurricanes' zone defense. The Lancers' season came to an abrupt end after advancing to their first title game since 2011.
"That zone they have is well put together," Lancers coach Greg Davis Jr. said. "We struggled to attack it tonight, but that was a credit to their defense."
The championship for Hartford could be the start of monumental week for the White River Junction-based school with the boys team the No. 1 seed in Division II and having advanced to Barre for the semifinals.
Contact Judith Altneu at [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter: @Judith_Altneu.
This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Hartford girls basketball tops Lamoille to win Division II state title