Sports

Foxborough Defense Keys 33-Point Win Over Milford Friday

The Foxborough girls' basketball team beat Milford, 58-25 Friday to improve to 6-2 on the season (4-2 in the Hockomock League).

Foxborough High School girls’ basketball coach Lisa Downs admitted she was a “little worried” heading into Friday’s game against winless Milford.

“I was worried [we would] enter the game not fully mentally prepared,” Downs said.

A legitimate concern, considering Foxborough’s last two games were emotional roller coasters won – and lost – in the final seconds. The Warriors knocked off Taunton late in the fourth quarter last Friday but fell to Stoughton on a buzzer-beater Tuesday.

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The Warriors returned home Friday and won convincingly, 58-25 to put their coach at ease.

“We can breathe a little bit,” Downs said with a smile following Foxborough’s sixth win of the season. “[The] Stoughton [game] was one of those heart breakers I thought about for seven hours after. I thought the better team didn’t win that night.”

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Sparked by an aggressive defensive effort, Foxborough built a 24-8 lead at the end of the first quarter and never looked back.

“We really focus on our defense and if they can play strong man defense and do the little things right then good things are going to happen offensively and they did that,” Downs said. 

Downs ordered for the full court press following Foxborough’s first basket, which keyed an 11-2 run to open the game.

“What I find with this group in particular is if we don’t start out in the press it allows us to stay on our heels a little bit and then they gradually get into the game,” Downs said. “In the games where we’ve started in a full court press, whether it be a zone or in man, I think they are ready to get the game going and those first eight minutes aren’t just warming up for the rest of the game.”

Foxborough’s aggressive start translated into the Warriors holding Milford to just 13 points at the half and 15 points through three quarters. As Foxborough continued to pad its double-digit lead Downs began emptying her bench to give everyone a chance to play.

“It’s great [to get everyone in the game],” Down said. “The mother in me wants to play everybody in the game but you can’t. Even though the girls are giving 100 percent in practice it comes down to needing wins. … As a team they were very unselfish [Friday]. They wanted everybody on the court to touch the ball. I was very impressed with the way they were unselfish out there and it felt great to get everybody in.”

Downs is hopeful that the defensive effort displayed by her team Friday will be the start of something special.

“If we can come crashing out of the gates like we have the last two weeks every game [that would be great],” Downs said. “I’d love to make this a trend. In Stoughton we came out on fire, we did the same thing tonight. I’m hoping we can continue that going forward.”

Foxborough will have a challenging week ahead as it hosts Attleboro on Tuesday before traveling to Canton Friday.

“Attleboro is scrappy and a great rebounding team that is good at boxing out,” Downs said. “If we play our game we should be in good shape. Then we have Canton followed by Franklin so we have some tough games coming up.”

Foxborough's Ashley Snyder led the team with 15 points (all scored in the first half). Andrea Marcotte and Nicole Doherty each added seven points apiece.


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