NORTH ATTLEBORO, Mass. - The Attleboro boys’ basketball team was forced to play its second league game in the Kenneth Pickering Gymnasium this season after a pipe burst at Attleboro High this morning and forced the Bombardiers on the road. The move and the early start did not bother Attleboro as it cruised to a 56-35 win over the Rocketeers to complete the season sweep of its rivals.
The Bombardiers jumped out early on North with an 11-0 run in the opening quarter. Senior guard Stanley Beaubrun was the key to Attleboro’s great start with a pair of three’s and nine of his 12 points coming in the first. Leading scorer Tim Walsh made only one basket in the first quarter and it came right at the end to give Attleboro a 21-6 lead.
“Stanley has been a guy that he hit some big shots early for us tonight and over the course of the year,” said Attleboro head coach Mark Houle about his senior’s solid performance. “He works very hard on defense. He’s definitely a key to what we want to do.”
The second quarter was tough for both teams offensively. Attleboro and North combined for just 12 points and the Bombardiers went into halftime leading 27-12. Houle admitted that the big early lead can sometimes cause a team to lose a little focus and it led to 12 turnovers for the Bombardiers in the second.
Houle added, “You have to have the mental toughness to get by that because in this game you never know what’s going to happen. The last time we played here, we were up 10-12 points and ended up escaping with a four-point win, so we didn’t want to put ourselves in that position again.”
Any concerns about Attleboro letting the lead slip were eased by a dominant third quarter. Another 11-0 run allowed the Bombardiers to extend their lead to 26 and a Tim Walsh layup early in the fourth pushed it as high as 32 points. Attleboro was dominating on the defensive side of the floor and using its size to own the glass.
“When you have a team down a little bit then you want to make sure that you continue to keep defensive pressure on them and make them take tough shots,” said Houle. “To have opportunities to put a team away early and we didn’t -- it was nice that we were able to come out in the third quarter and get it done.”
Senior forward Shawn Reardon led the way for Attleboro with 13 points, including eight in the second half, and sophomore Kyle Murphy added eight. Walsh, who came in averaging more than 17 points per game and is closing in on the 1,000-point milestone, finished with nine.
North Attleboro did put together as 10-0 run in the fourth quarter with several freshmen playing a role because of illnesses and injuries to regular varsity players. Brent Doherty, Tommy Reynolds, and John Friberg all got their first varsity minutes and points on Tuesday and sophomore Ridge Olsen led the team with 10. Senior Liam O’Donnell added seven points.
Head coach Sean Mulkerrins calls it a balancing act to try and get his younger players minutes while not hurting his seniors, who have worked hard all season long.
“We can start preparing some of those young guys and getting them a taste but at the same time I don’t want to take away from seniors because they’re still giving me the effort,” he explained. “Right now it’s a trying period for the guys -- they’re being tested. But, as I told them a few times, if this is the worst thing that happens to you then you’ve lived a good life.”
Attleboro beat the Kelley-Rex leaders Mansfield last week and on Friday will face the Davenport leaders with a trip to Sharon needing just one more win to qualify for the tournament. North Attleboro will travel to Canton.
Josh Perry can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @Josh_Perry10.