FOXBORO – A dominant first quarter set the tone for Foxboro’s comfortable 67-41 girls basketball victory Tuesday over Hockomock League foe Oliver Ames.
The Warriors (14-1) avenged their only loss of the season, as Foxboro had fallen to the Tigers (10-5) in January. As the team prepares for a three-peat bid in Division 3, head coach Lisa Downes was pleased with the effort.
“Mentally we have been preparing for this game since January 4,” Downes said. “We did a little bit of a different defense tonight and caught them off guard a little bit. We executed the game plan and played team basketball.”
Warriors guard Kailey Sullivan paced the offense with 33 points and she said the effort was a result of increased confidence in her shooting.
“I felt confident today,” Sullivan said. “In the last few games I haven’t felt as confident so it was nice to perform like that today.”
The Tigers scored the first point of the game, a free throw from Zoey Swanson, but that was the only swish the team would muster in the opening quarter. The Warriors dominated the rebounding and shooting battles and underwent a 20-0 run to finish the quarter and take the seismic lead.
“We recognize where each other are on the court better now than we did a month ago,” Downs said. “We like a fast tempo and when we don’t have that we struggle sometimes. When we get the rebound to get the fast break going, that works to our strengths.”
Oliver Ames was much cleaner in the second quarter, with Foxboro only outscoring the foe 15-14, but the Tigers still entered halftime facing a 20-point deficit.
The third quarter featured more of a defensive battle, with Foxboro edging Oliver Ames 9-7. The fourth quarter was much more wide open, with the Warriors scoring 23 points to the Tigers 19.
Adrianna Porrazzo was the Warriors’ next highest scorer with 15 points, while Addie Ruter contributed 10 points. The Tigers were led by Maever Horsman’s 13 points, while Avery Gamble had 12 and Zoey Swanson had 11.
Sullivan said that this matchup has been on the team’s mind for a month and that securing the comfortable victory has the team feeling confident.
“Ever since we lost to them at the beginning of the season, we circled that date on our calendar,” Sullivan said. “We were really excited to play them again and it was nice to beat them by a lot.”
With the victory behind them, Downs said the team will now shift towards the rest of the regular season before fully committing to winning that third consecutive state title.
“We were looking at this game first before we looked beyond that,” Downs said. “Every practice and every game we incrementally get better and that is giving the girls confidence.”