Boys'
hoop stages comeback win over Stoughton
By Mike Berger
Citizen Staff
The CHS boys’
basketball team had a very exciting week, staging an exciting
51-48 win over rival Stoughton and nearly upsetting a very
strong North Attleboro team before falling 48-46.
The 6-12
Bulldogs have two games left in the season and will play King
Philip away Friday and end the regular season at home Monday
night, February 15 against Fairhaven. If Canton should beat
Fairhaven, it will qualify for the Division 3 playoffs by
winning 50 percent of its Division 3 games,
Canton’s
improvement against OA, NA and Stoughton bodes well for its game
against Fairhaven — a team that beat Canton 57-48 earlier in the
season.
“Over the last
few games we have shown that when we attack the basket, play
aggressive defense and battle hard on the boards, we can play
against anyone,” coach Mike Devoll said, noting that Canton
played well against a 13-3 North Attleboro team and could have
won the game if the Bulldogs had converted more of their free
throws — they missed ten of 17 attempts.
“At least wee
made it to the free throw line,” Devoll said. “In our game
against Foxboro, which we didn’t play well, we only went to the
line six times.”
AJ Nichols and
Marc Abelard each had 14 points against NA, with Dan Boivert
adding eight points.
Other than the
Foxboro game, Canton has been playing well, with good guard play
from Max Guillaume, Joe McCabe and Chris Murray, excellent
two-way play by Abelard, good shooting from Boivert, good
defense, inside play and rebounding from Tyler Gavigan, Nichols
and Zia Wiggins, and solid contributions from Josh Sheehan and
Colby Gavigan.
Things did not
look good for the Bulldogs against Stoughton as the Black
Knights pulled to a 36-25 lead with five minutes to play in the
third quarter. But the Bulldogs came back on a 15-2 run to lead
40-38 at the end of the quarter as Nichols hit a three-point
shot, Tyler Gavigan scored inside and hit a free throw, McCabe
hit a three-point shot, Abelard hit a jumper and two free throws
and Tyler Gavigan tapped in an offensive rebound.
The fourth
quarter began with the Canton defense battling the ferocious
rebounding of the Knights. McCabe helped the Bulldogs when he
hit two free throws and a three-point shot to give Canton a
three-point lead with 4:44 left in the game. Nichols stuck an
important jumper to give the Bulldogs a four-point lead with
3:31 to go.
Stoughton came
back with four points to tie the game, but after a timeout,
Nichols made a great pass to Abelard for an inside basket and
Canton led by two with 2:22 left. Boivert then hit two free
throws and Canton led for the rest of the game.
Stoughton
coach John Galvin gave Canton credit for the comeback, its
defense and its determination.
“Canton wanted
it more,” he said. “Give them credit. We had enough
opportunities. We just didn’t get it done. We were out-played
and out-coached.”
Nichols,
Abelard and McCabe all made key plays down the stretch and each
contributed ten points to the Bulldog win.
February 11, 2010
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