WRV girls basketball a little bit of everything

By BENJAMIN ROSENBERG

Valley News Staff Writer

Published: 12-23-2022 6:54 PM

SOUTH ROYALTON — Rather than sticking to a base defense, the White River Valley girls basketball team takes whatever shape it needs depending on the Wildcats’ opponent.

Sometimes White River Valley will play a zone, sometimes man-to-man, and sometimes the Wildcats employ a hybrid defense like a box-and-one or triangle-and-two. Coach Tim Perreault’s team is able to do this in large part because WRV, coming off its first-ever trip to Barre Auditorium, is an experienced bunch that understands the game well.

“These girls are athletic enough. They’re just good, athletic basketball players who can get out and play whatever,” Perreault said. “We can change on the fly if we need to. When a team calls a timeout and makes an adjustment, we counter that adjustment ourselves. It’s kind of a fun cat-and-mouse game.”

In the first three years since White River Valley was created out of the merger of the Royalton and Bethel school districts, the Wildcats hovered around the .500 mark. But after a 2-3 start last winter, WRV caught fire as the calendar turned to 2022, winning 10 straight games and setting itself up for its first deep postseason run.

The ability to change defenses at a moment’s notice served the Wildcats well in a road quarterfinal against Peoples, a team that was led by a dominant scorer in Shelby Wells. WRV used a box-and-one to neutralize Wells in a 48-39 victory that sent the Cats to the VPA Division III semifinals. WRV’s road ended in Barre with a 46-26 loss to eventual state champion Windsor.

“Playing Windsor in Barre is tough. Playing Windsor anywhere is tough,” senior guard Jillian Barry said. “But we weren’t supposed to be the team last year that was supposed to make a crazy run and we did, (so) we know we can do it again.”

Essentially all of the Wildcats’ offensive production is back for another run. Barry, who averaged a shade under 10 points per game last season, is WRV’s vocal leader. Perreault’s daughter Ella, a senior forward, may be undersized compared to many of the post players she faces, but she more than holds her own. Sophomore guard Ashlyn Rhoades burst onto the scene as a freshman last year and gives the Cats another scoring threat.

But their leading scorer last year was Tanner Drury, who makes up for what she lacks in height with sharp outside shooting and nifty ball-handling at point guard. Drury, now a junior, averaged 16 points per contest in 2021-22 and was in double figures in every game but one. Another senior, forward Shannon Hadlock, completes the starting five.

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“Those three seniors, Ella, Jillian and Shannon, they’re like sisters,” Tim Perreault said. “And Tanner and Ashlyn, they’re both gym rats. They don’t really care who they’re playing with, they’re going to mix it in with anybody. Some kids that come in and play, it just doesn’t matter to them, but to these kids, it does.”

White River Valley played in a summer league in Rutland, West Rutland and Fair Haven, competing against some of the top teams in the state with two games per week throughout the summer. Perreault said that helped the Wildcats’ returnees focus on areas where they still need to improve as well as maintain their basketball-specific skills — especially considering Barry, Hadlock, Ella Perreault and Drury all spent the fall with the soccer team.

This season opened with a bit of a reality check in the form of a 32-30 home loss to a much-improved Thetford squad, a game Perreault said would have ended differently had WRV not shot so poorly. Since then, the Wildcats have turned in a pair of blowout wins — 63-17 at Northfield, a team that handed them a loss last year, and 51-18 over Springfield. The defense has been particularly stingy, holding back-to-back opponents under 20 points. And against the Cosmos, WRV used a full-court press effectively to get out in transition on the other end.

The Cats’ scoring is remarkably balanced. Barry leads them with 39 total points through three games, while Drury and Ella Perreault have each scored 38. Rhoades got off to a slow start, with just two points in her first five halves, but then put up 13 in the second half alone against Springfield on Thursday.

“We don’t have a lot of size, but we have a lot of heart and a lot of grit,” Tim Perreault said. “The girls are very good about sharing the ball, and they don’t care who is the high scorer or who gets the most rebounds.”

WRV’s depth could be an issue, with just a nine-player roster that includes three freshmen who have barely played so far. The starters, even in lopsided victories, have remained on the floor to the end.

But those starters proved their worth last year, and this year the Wildcats won’t be catching anybody by surprise as they chase another trip to The Aud. They’ll have a chance for a statement win next Friday in a rematch with Windsor on the road.

“We haven’t had everybody together at once, so we still have to work on our conditioning,” Perreault said. “We have to keep working those younger kids in and getting them confidence so they can support those first five or six kids who have that experience. Once we get that chemistry going, that will help us out in the second half.”

Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.

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