A Three-Game Week

February 8, 2007 - American Basketball Association (ABA)
Vermont Frost Heaves News Release


As the Frost Heaves return to Barre after a five-week absence, we have a handful of substitutions to announce:

- Our opponent at the Aud tonight won't be the Hollywood Fame, but the Bellingham (Wash.) Slam, a terrific team that currently stands No. 8 in the ABA power rankings. All tickets for Feb. 8 will be honored, so be sure to catch Legislators' Night, featuring a halftime game between two multipartisan, bicameral teams of state reps and senators, the Movers and the Shakers. Speaker of the House Gaye Symington will don a striped shirt to referee. It's not yet clear the answer to the question one legislator posed of Madame Speaker on the statehouse floor last week: Will she use a whistle or a gavel? Show up to find out. Tip-off is 7:05 p.m.

- Tonight's Northfield Savings Bank 110% Community All-Star, Sen. William Doyle, has come down with a bad back. "On account of too many people, uh, leaning on me," explains the longtime lawmaker from Washington County. As a result, for his halftime shots for charity, Sen. Doyle will yield the floor to the junior senator from Caledonia County, one George Coppenrath, father of a certain former UVM great. I've long been hoping to tell our fans that Coppenrath will suit up for the Frost Heaves, and now I can.

- Finally, tonight marks the Barre debut of Antoine Hyman, a 6'10" veteran of professional ball stateside and overseas. A 1996 graduate of Keuka College in New York State, Antoine is the all-time shotblocking leader in NCAA Division III history, and a terrific pick-up for us as we head into the stretch. Forward Lester Strong, who has been rehabilitating a broken hand, has left Vermont to join a club team in Australia, where the season begins next month. The entire Frost Heaves organization wishes Lester the very best.

Two more games round out our current homestand. Bellingham returns to the Aud on Saturday for a 4 p.m. matinee, when Bond Auto Parts presents Bump's Birthday Party. Bump's mascot friends will play a pick-up game at halftime, and every kid through the door will receive a free Bump "flip" collectible card. And on Thursday night, Feb. 15, the Maryland Nighthawks invade Burlington with their new signee, China's Sun Ming Ming, at 7'9" the tallest player in basketball history.

Finally, we've been getting inquiries about the procedure for the playoffs, which-with a 21-4 record and the No. 2 spot in the power rankings-we're likely to qualify for. If we were to finish in the top eight at the conclusion of the regular season, we'd get a first-round bye and the right to host a second-round game. Where that game would take place would depend first on venue availability, and then on secondary factors. All season ticket holders in the host venue would have the right to purchase the seats they'd occupied for the duration of the season; fans with season tickets in the venue that doesn't host a playoff game would have first dibs on purchasing any available reserved seats.

There could be subsequent home playoff games, if we were to keep winning. Rest assured, our most loyal fans will be serviced first.

See you at the Aud tonight and on Saturday, and at Sun Ming Ming's visit to Memorial next week!

For tickets, go through the Flynn Regional Box Office: 153 Main Street in Burlington; 159 Pearl Street in Essex; by calling 802-86-FLYNN; or by visiting www.flynntix.org. General admission tickets are available for purchase in person at First in Fitness in Montpelier and at the Barre Opera House during regular box office hours. Or, as former NSB 110% Community All-Star Rusty Dewees likes to say, "You can try yer luck at the door."

For more information about the Frost Heaves, go to vermontfrostheaves.com.

By Alexander Wolff

Note: OurSports Central no longer actively covers the American Basketball Association (ABA) as a professional league due in part to its inability to publish and play a schedule and the transitory nature of many of its teams. For information on professional minor leagues, please see OSC's basketball section.



American Basketball Association Stories from February 8, 2007


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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