Hopkinton Too Much For FHS Girls Basketball

Right from the start of the game, it was going to be an uphill battle for the Foxborough High girls' basketball team if they were to win their Foxborough Winter Classic finals matchup against the Hopkinton Hillers.

Getting to the finals with an overtime win against Ursuline Academy of Dedham, it was going to take more to get past a team with one of the Tri-Valley League’s best scorers in Lindsey Doucette.

“We knew it was going to be a really really tough game. We just tried to focus on eight minutes at a time,” Foxborough head coach Lisa Downs said.

Controlling the game from start to finish, the Hopkinton Hillers (15-5) won the Foxborough Winter Classic by beating the Foxborough Warriors (3-16), 70-44.

The 14-3 run by the Hillers to start the game was a sign of things to come from Hopkinton. With Doucette (26 points) under the basket and getting to the free throw line, the hight advantage alone was too much for the Warriors to handle.

Trailing 23-5 after the first quarter, Warriors’ junior Ally Perry (17 points, 9 rebounds) tried to stop the damage with nine points in the second quarter. Its been an interesting season for Perry who was forced to go from being an outside shooter to a low post role this year.

“Last year, she was relied on for outside shots primarily and this year she had to be the entire inside game and for where she started she was uncomfortable at the beginning of the season here and now but in the end she wanted to be there,” Downs said.

Early in the fourth quarter, Hopkinton senior Alee Leteria (19 points, 8 rebounds)  scored her 1,000th point in her high school career. The captain for the Hillers’ was able to break the 1,000 point barrier even though she lost half a season of basketball as a junior.

“Its a huge goal for anyone to score a 1,000 points. Just a wonderful evening when you have a player score 1,000 points,” Hopkinton coach Rita Atkinson said.

With the end of the season for the Warriors, Downs can only look at the potential of next year’s team. Relying on a team of mostly sophomores and juniors, the Warriors were forced to send out younger players to go against teams filled with experienced seniors. Losing only two seniors from this year’s team gives the Warriors’ plenty of space to grow and develop in the next year.

“I’m really looking forward to what next year’s gonna bring,” Downs said “I have a lot of young players that now with a year under my belt they know what I expect. They know the system I try to get.”

While the Warriors’ season is over, the Hillers now await the tournament pairings to be released on Friday, Feb. 24.