Boys’ hoop stages comeback win over Stoughton

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

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=1183

Posted by Mike Berger on Feb 11 2010. Filed under High School, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.