Montpelier Boys Basketball Defeats Bryan 62-47

MONTPELIER – Montpelier’s boys basketball team had a slight edge over Bryan after three quarters at 41-37, but soon stretched that lead to an eventual 62-47 nonconference win after tallying 21 points in the fourth quarter on Saturday at Montpelier High School.

“We’ve got a lot of boys that work realy hard,” Montpelier coach Nick Ramos said as the Locos improved to 9-1. “Everybody seems to know their role and they play it to a tee.”

In the first frame,both teams went back-and-forth during the whole quarter,which included six points from montpelier’s CJ Fidler and six free throws from the Golden Bears – three by Tucker Miller,two by Tucker Watson and one by Bryce Welling – for an 11-11 tie entering the second quarter.

Both teams went back-and-forth to start the second frame, which included two triples from Miller that helped the Golden Bears (3-6) take an 18-16 lead in the middle of the frame.

But the Locos soon closed out the frame on a 9-0 run – seven points from Fidler including a triple and a bucket from Hayden Sharps – to capture a 25-18 lead at halftime.

“We kind of came out a little slow in the first and second quarters, we missed a lot of open shots that we normally make and I think that’s one of the reasons that the game was where it was at in the second half,” Ramos said.

the third frame was another back-and-forth brawl between the two teams as the Locos scored 16 points – including five from Fidler and four each from Sharps and Wesley Hartsock – while the Golden Bears recorded 19 – where Miller tallied 11 including three triples while Rhett McGill had four and Jake Arnold and Watson each had two – with Montpelier still leading Bryan entering the fourth frame.

And in the fourth quarter, the Locos started the frame on a 6-0 run – buckets from Kenneth Smeltzer, sharps and Fidler – before Arnold tossed up a triple that ended the brief run.

But from there, the Locos held the Golden Bears to just seven points – including four from Watson – the rest of the way while they scored 15 – eight from Fidler, three from Smeltzer, and two from both Gavyn Bass and Hartsock – as they soon branched away and secured the win.

“We played really, really good basketball for three quarters