Burlington High School Scholars' Bowl
Burr and Burton 225, Burlington 205
Match Summary
COLCHESTER, Vt. -- For the first time in seven season's the Burlington High School Scholars' Bowl team's season is over before for the final day of the Vermont State Tournament.
Burr and Burton beat the Seahorses on the buzzer in the third round and ended Burlington's season in the octofinals of state competition with a 225-205 victory at Saint Michael's College on March 22, 2003. The defeat left BHS out of the Final Four of the Vermont State Tournament for the first time since 1996.
The match began well for the Seahorses (39-13 overall, 5-1 Vermont State Tournment). After the first toss-up went unanswered, correct responses on imprinting by Isaac Backus and New Hampshire by Sheng Li gave BHS a 35-0 edge. After a neg. 5, two more toss-ups by Li put Burlington ahead 80-30. But two more negs and two answers by the Bulldogs (13-11-1 overall, 3-1-1 Vermont State Tournament) evened the score at 70. BHS' Tobias Crawford hit the round's last toss-up on Mozart and five points on the bonus to carry an 85-70 edge into the Lightning Round.
Burr and Burton struggled in its category about countries and their official languages, getting just four correct. But BHS couldn't take advantage, scoring just two steals and five out of ten in its category about the nationality of explorers. Two steals by the Bulldogs made BHS' advantage 120-100 going into the final nine minutes.
BBA answered the first question in the final round and Li hit on the second. Then Burr and Burton, led by captain Keith Williams, took the game over. The Bulldogs correctly answered five of the next seven questions to seize the lead at 160-130. Two answers by Li in four questions cut BHS' deficit two 20, but another Burr and Burton run -- this one 45-5 -- upped the margin to 215-155 after 21 questions. The Seahorses finally got going thereafter. Answers by Brad Moore, Li, Li, Backus, and Li produced a 50-0 spurt in a six questions span and had the deficit down to 10. But the next two questions went unanswered and Burr and Burton hit on the third to increase the lead to 225-205. The was still time for BHS to draw even, but three more double misses ended the match -- and Burlington's season.
Li paced the Seahorses with nine toss-ups but had only 115 points, more than 80 below his average. He nonetheless went over the 1,000-point barrier for the season for the third-highest single-season total in school history. The Burlington captain finishes third in single-season points (1095), single-season scoring average (182.5 ppg), total points (2140), and career scoring average (97.3 ppg) in team history. Backus added 45 points and two toss-up, Moore had one toss-up and 25 points, and Crawford answered two toss-ups in totaling 20 points.
With the loss, Burlington was knocked out of the Vermont State Tournament before the semifinal round for the first time since coach David Rome's first season in 1995-96. During its six-year Final Four run BHS won four state championships (1997, 1999, 2000 and 2001) and posted a combined state tournament record of 40-3.
Burr and Burton went on to defeat Thetford in the quarterfinals, 255-135, to become the first unseeded team to advance to the semifinals at states.
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