Strong Second Quarter Propels Stoughton High Boys’ Basketball Past Foxborough

After trailing Foxboro 13-11 at the end of the first quarter, the Stoughton High boys’ basketball team outscored Foxboro 24-7 in the second quarter, propelling the Black Knights to a 77-47 win over the Warriors Friday night in Stoughton.

With the win, Stoughton improves to 2-0, and is now 1-0 in the Hockomock League’s Davenport Division. Foxboro falls to 1-1 (0-1 in the Davenport).

Stoughton and Foxboro combined for just 8 points in the first four minutes of play, and neither team was able to get into an offensive rhythm. 

“Our defense was great [in the first quarter],” Foxboro coach CJ Neely said. “I think we really did a good job limiting Aaron Calixte’s stuff. He’s really good at getting to the lane. We got hands up early on shooters; we were boxing out on guys; we were playing physically tough.”

But then Stoughton went on an 11-2 run in the early part of the second quarter, and started to take control of the game.

The Black Knights scored on four of their first five possessions in the second quarter, highlighted by back-to-back threes by Steffan Jackson and Marcus Middleton to start the frame (Calixte hit a third three to cap the run).

Foxboro’s Jake Soccorso hit a three to cut the Stoughton lead to 22-18, but then the Black Knights went on a 13-2 run to close the quarter, which included two dunks from Antonio “Nuke” Ferreira and seven points from Middelton, giving the home team a 35-20 lead going into the half.

While Stoughton’s 24-point second quarter offensive explosion was impressive, their half-court man-to-man defense limited the Warriors to just seven points in the quarter.

“It wasn’t always perfect, but they played it hard. They limited the second chance points and just made it really hard for Foxboro to score out of their half-court offense and we thought that was the turning point,” Stoughton head coach John Gallivan said.

Stoughton came out with an 8-3 mini-run to start the third quarter, to extend the Stoughton lead to 18. Foxboro fought back to cut the deficit to 11 on two separate occasions, but that was as close as the Warriors would get.

After Foxboro scored to make it 45-34, Joe Bunce-Grenon hit a three-pointer with 1:45 left in the third. Ferreira ended the quarter with back-to-back dunks to restore Stoughton’s 18-point lead.  Stoughton went on to outscore Foxboro 25-13 in the fourth, cementing the victory. 

“This did not feel like a 30-point win because Foxboro pushed us and pushed us and pushed us,” Gallivan said. “They played so hard it seemed like everything was always in jeopardy and that’s to their credit.”

Neely said it takes a “consistent effort for 32 minutes” to win, and Foxboro played well in the opening quarter—the first eight minutes—and had two or three minute spurts the rest of the game, Neely said, but the Warriors were not able to string together long periods of consistent play.

Middleton led Stoughton with 28 points for the second straight game, equaling a career high. 

“He can get you from the outside as we saw [in the season-opener at Burlington] with six three-pointers and he can get you from the inside. We saw a lot of take the ball to the basket and that little floater over the big man [against Foxboro],” Gallivan said. “He can get you one way or another. He’s a double edged sword.”

Ferreira turned in 12 points, 7 rebounds and 4 blocks, causing problems inside on both ends of the court.

Calixte added 10 points, 6 assists and 2 steals. Bunce-Grenon had 8 points and Jackson had 5 points, 8 rebounds and sang in the school’s winter concert taking place at the same time.

Foxboro’s Nick Couroupacis led the Warriors with 17 points.

“The thing I liked about [Nick’s] game tonight—he was mixing it up underneath, grabbing some boards, he made a few layups inside,” Neely said. “He’s due for a big year.”

Alex Pacitti added 6 points, while Soccorso and Nick Ditullio chipped in with 5 points and 4 points, respectively.

Neely was impressed with Pacitti’s effort on defense.

“Alex Pacitti’s defense on Aaron was big. We challenged [Alex] to go at him and he played very well,” Nelly said.

Stoughton travels to Franklin on Tuesday, while Foxboro travels to Canton on the same night.