Otters basketball enters postseason

The fourth-ranked Otter Valley High School boys basketball team (14-6) hosts the No. 13 Harwood Union High School Highlanders (4-16) in a Division II postseason "playdown" tonight. Doors open for the event at 6:20 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults and $4 for students and senior citizens. 

John Winslow
(Addison Independent 2014)

The Otters are led by senior forward John Winslow (2014 Addison Independent Player of the Year), who has surpassed the 1,000-point mark in his high school hoops career.

The Otters-Highlanders winner will likely move on to face No. 5 Vergennes (13-7), expected victor of a playdown against 6-14 Hartford.

The division's top regular season team, 20-0 Woodstock, seems likely to advance at least to the semifinals at Barre Auditorium on March 2. The Otters may meet the Woodstock Wasps there, if they can manage two postseason wins.

UPDATE (Feb. 26, 2015): MOVING ON - The Otters defeated Harwood in the play-down game by a score of 45-27 and advance to face Vergennes in a quarterfinal game at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 28. Vergennes came out on top, 68-53, in its play-down against Hartford.

The winner of the Otter Valley-Vergennes matchup will move on to a March 2 semifinal game at Barre Auditorium. The opponent will be the winner of Friday's quarterfinal game between top-ranked Woodstock (20-0) and eighth-ranked Mill River (10-11). Mill River advanced to the quarterfinal round after a 62-55 play-down win against Milton.

Otter Valley and Vergennes did not play each other this season. Otter Valley faced Woodstock on Feb. 11. The game did not go well for the visiting Otters, who lost by a score 64-36, though it featured John Winslow's 1,000th career point.