Sports
Foxborough High Girls' Basketball's Fourth Quarter Comeback Falls Short at Stoughton
The Warriors trailed by 10 midway through the fourth quarter, but had a chance to tie the score on the game's final play. However, the Black Knights held on for a 45-42 win Thursday in Stoughton.
When Mackenzie McGrath hit a three-pointer to put Stoughton up by 10 points, 42-32, midway through the fourth quarter, it looked as if the the Black Knights might pull away on Stoughton's senior night, but the Foxborough High girls' basketball team wasn't about to go quietly.
A basket by Foxborough's Kristen Warner cut the Stoughton lead to 42-40 with 52 seconds left to play, capping an 8-0 run for the Warriors.
On Stoughton's next possession, Emma Zuk made one of two free throws, followed by a Foxborough missed shot, and then Stoughton's Ashley Medeiros was fouled and hit both of her foul shots, giving Stoughton a 45-40 edge with 25.5 seconds left. On the other end of the court, Andrea Marcotte was fouled while attempting a three-pointer and sank two out of three free throws to make it a 45-42 game with 16.3 seconds left.
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Stoughton missed both of its foul shots on the ensuing possession, giving Foxborough a chance with 11.5 seconds on the clock to run a final play and send the game into overtime. But Katherine Tamulionis' three-point attempt hit the backboard, and Stoughton's Nicole Daniels grabbed the rebound and got the ball to Zuk who ran out the clock as the Black Knights held on for the 45-42 win Thursday night in Stoughton.
Stoughton improves to 11-5 with its second win over Foxborough this season. Meanwhile, the Warriors fall to 11-4.
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"Our defense decided to show up in the last three minutes of the game. We were just trying to double team their ball handlers to make the person bringing the ball up the court a little more uncomfortable handling the ball," Foxborough coach Lisa Downs said. "It was just a little bit too late. The effort was great at the end but we were lacking 29 minutes of that effort."
Stoughton led 10-9 at the end of the first quarter. With the game tied at 16 after a two-pointer from Tamulionis with 3:56 left in the second, Stoughton held Foxborough to just one point the rest of the half, closing the quarter on a 9-1 run, taking a 25-17 lead at halftime.
After a sluggish start to the third quarter, where both teams scored just two points apiece over the first four minutes of the period, Stoughton took a 32-23 lead into the final eight minutes of play.
One of the highlights of the game was the battle between centers Ashley Snyder and Daniels of Stoughton. Snyder finished with 14 points, but was limited to just three field goals (unflappable, she went 8 for 8 from the free throw line) and Daniels had 6, also limited to three field goals.
"Snyder is a great player. [Daniels] is a great player. And you saw them going at it all night," Stoughton coach Janet Sullivan said. "Give credit to the refs, they let them play and [Snyder and Daniels] kind of neutralized each other. So it ended up being the rest of the team that was going to win or lose the game and I liked that other people stepped up tonight because we do rely so much on [Daniels]."
It was Stoughton's outside shooters who stepped up - Zuk (11 points), McGrath (9 points) and Marlena Siegel (9 points), combined for 29 points, including a half-dozen three-pointers between the three of them.
In addition to Snyder's 14 points, Warner had 8 points for Foxborough, including six in the fourth quarter; Andrea Marcotte also had 8 points; Tamulionis had 7; and Ally Perry had 5.
Foxborough travels to Milford Tuesday, Feb. 12 at 6:30 p.m., while Stoughton travels to Canton the same night.
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