Oxbow greats Jazz and Jade Huntington are, along with Marcus Camby and the UMass teams of the 1990s, *the* reason I have a basketball obsession. (So, therefore, is John Calipari, but we won't go into how much I now don't like the man here.)
So the Olympians of 2011-2012 will make the program's 27th trip to the Barre Auditorium tonight, taking on No. 2 Thetford. Both teams are 18-4. Third-seeded Oxbow beat Thetford twice in the regular season, once 44-42 at Thetford on Dec. 30, 2011 and again 43-28 near the end of the regular season in Bradford.
Both teams hit some bumps at the end of the regular season, with the Panthers losing two of their last three and the Olympians dropping three of their last six.
The winner of tonight's 8:15 p.m. semifinal will take on the winner of No. 1 Enosburg and No. 4 Windsor in Saturday's 7:30 p.m. Division III state championship. The Hornets and the Yellowjackets play prior to the Panthers and the Olympians tonight. Oxbow beat Windsor 33-28 in Bradford on Jan. 3 but did not face Enosburg. The Panthers did not face either Enosburg or Windsor.
The Olympians are making their second straight trip to Barre, where they fell in the semifinals last March to Lake Region 53-37. They last won the championship in 2002 as a No. 1 seed in Division II with a 60-45 win over Montpelier. They've made seven trips to the Aud in the last 12 years and have won 12 state championships in school history. Five of those titles came in DII, seven in DIII. The last time Oxbow played for a championship was 2004, when the Olympians lost to Arlington 58-47. They are 21-5 in semifinal games in school history.
The Panthers, on the other hand, have comparitively little Aud experience. They are 3-6 all-time in semifinal games and 0-3 in final appearances. The Panthers are making their first trip to Barre since 2005, when they lost in the finals to Arlington 55-42. Prior to tonight, the Panthers had lost six straight playdowns. They've made just two Aud appearances in the last 12 years.
The last time these two met at the Aud was 1983 when Oxbow beat Thetford for the championship by an overwhelming 54-29 margin.
Good luck to both teams!
- Anna Grearson
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