Black Knights Top Warriors
WRENTHAM - Not every game lives up to the hype. This one did.
Stoughton High (10-1) hung on to topple King Philip (9-2), 73-69, inside a packed gym at King Phiilp Regional High School Tuesday night.
The game pitted two of the Massachusetts' best players in Jake Layman (KP) and Aaron Calixte (Stoughton), and neither of them disappointed. Layman had 30 points and 13 rebounds while Calixte finished with 29 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists.
"You could tell in the locker room, they were ready to go," Stoughton head coach John Gallivan said. "This is just a special atmosphere. I tell kids all the time, it's not going to be like this, even if you play at college. Maybe at Maryland."
One of the biggest question marks coming into the game was which Black Knight would be trying to guard the Maryland-bound, 6'8'' Layman. Some suspected Antonio Ferreira while others thought Steffan Jackson was a better match up. In the end, Stoughton went with their best defender, junior Marcus Middleton, who is 9 inches shorter than Layman.
"It's only a foot," joked Gallivan. "Marcus is just an animal defensively. He covers everybody's best player so why should we switch it. You throw it all against the wall and see what sticks. We don't want Jake to beat us but we don't want every other guy to beat us as well."
"I think when Aaron was a freshman, he once missed a big foul shot and I think he basically said to himself that's never going to happen again and it hasn't."
When it mattered most for Stoughton, it was Calixte and Middleton who took over, scoring 18 of 20 points in the final quarter. Middleton finished with 20 points.
King Philip's Sam McDonald finished with 13 points while Christian Fair had 8 points, including a three-pointer at the buzzer to end the first quarter.
Steffan Jackson had 7 points and 8 rebounds for Stoughton while Antonio Ferreira had 8 boards and 3 blocks.
Stoughton will play Attleboro on Friday while KP travels to Oliver Ames.