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MVPs: Above left: Brody Belanger of Windham Tech (blue) and Mikey Monroe of Parish Hill with Jonathan Tremblay, chair of the Rotary basketball committee. Above right: Putnam Clipper Emily St. Martin (blue) and Hailey Johnson of PSA.
Playing in front of a sparse crowd of family, friends, fellow students and Putnam Rotary Club members, the high school senior basketball boys and girls put on an offensive barrage never witnessed in the history of the Putnam Rotary Club Ray Brousseau Memorial Senior All Star game.
Due to a low turnout of female players the teams were combined with men and women on both squads. A combined total of 214 points was scored. with the winning Green team coached by Donte Adams and Denzel Washington of The Woodstock Academy edging the Blue squad coached by Neil Bernier and Lee Blanchette of Tourtellotte Memorial High School. The final score was 108-106 in a game that went down to the wire for the evenly matched teams.
The contest was close throughout with the Blue team on top 57-53 at halftime. The game winning basket by the Green squad was scored by Putnam’s Alonzo Henries on a tip in with less than two seconds on the clock. The winners were paced by team Most Valuable Player Mikey Monroe of Parish Hill who finished with 29 points, nine rebounds and seven assists on the night. Henries totaled 13 points for the winners. Hailey Johnson of Putnam Science Academy was the women’s MVP for the winners
The losing Blue team was led by hot shooting Brody Belanger of Windham Tech, who poured in 49 points with an amazing demonstration of three-point bombs, explosive dunks and slashing moves to the hoop. He was selected as the Blue team MVP. Putnam Clipper Emily St. Martin was the women’s MVP for the Blue squad.
Dylan Johnson of Tourtellotte Memorial High School and Carter Tosetti of Woodstock each walked away $50 richer thanks to CorePlus Credit Union, which sponsored the halftime shootout. The duo of Johnson and Tosetti made shots from the foul line, top of the key and half court to earn the $50 reward.
The game was a total community effort with the referees from Board #35 donating their services. The refs were led by Bill Monaco. Working with him were Matt Phillips, former UConn woman’s player Shannon Saunders and David Coderre. The scoring and time keeping were done by Fred Hutchins and Maurice “Moe” Coderre, who also led those in attendance by performing the National Anthem.
Sponsors of the game included The Woodstock Academy, CorePlus Credit Union, Centreville Bank, WINY Radio, Benpe Consulting and Archambault Insurance Associates. Game participation mementos, presented to all players, and the MVP Awards were sponsored by the Byrnes Agency of Dayville and Norwich.
Rotarian Jonathan Tremblay was the chairperson of the organizing committee. Working with Tremblay were H. Douglas Porter, Dick Loomis, Ron Coderre, Jon Sturdevant, Club President Missy Meyers, Deb Hoft, John Miller, Woody Durst and Richard Naumann.
“The Putnam Rotary Club is pleased to sponsor this annual game featuring the senior boys and girls all stars. It’s part of our commitment to the young people of our communities. We’re looking forward to next year. Congratulations to these players for putting on one heck of a show for those in attendance,” said chairman Tremblay.
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