NORTH ATTLEBOROUGH, Mass. - As she stepped to the free throw line in the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s Division 2 first round game, sophomore Cassidy Harrison heard something that was unusual at a girls’ basketball game -- noise.
Instead of the crowd becoming eerily silent during her trip to the line, the large North Attleboro student section was letting her know just how important those free throws were. The league champion Rocketeers were staging a late comeback to avoid an upset and the crowd was as loud as it has been at any girls' game this season.
Harrison stepped up and coolly knocked down the shots and left her shooting hand up in the air to let the crowd, the Rocketeers, and her teammates know that it was all under control.
“She loved it, you know, she’s ice,” said Foxboro coach Lisa Downs, who labeled this one of the most memorable games of her career. “She wanted that ball, I could tell. She was like give me that ball, I’m making it.”
The sophomore guard reflected on the atmosphere with a smile. Harrison said, “We were ready to go right from the start coming down from the lower seed. We knew we could beat them. They’re a great team and we just had to work for it.”
She continued, “My whole team, we were just all like hyped up because we had our fan section and their fan section and it just hyped us up and we just wanted it so bad. No matter who Lisa threw in, everyone was ready.”
Harrison scored 11 of her team-high 17 points in the fourth quarter (including a perfect 6-6 from the line) to help Foxboro hold on to a 64-56 upset of No. 4 seed North Attleboro. The win sends the Warriors into the second round to face league rival Stoughton and is the second consecutive year that North has been beaten at home in the first round of the playoffs.
Rocketeers coach John DelBonis remarked, “They outplayed us; they did. Our effort was there, but I think we might have played nervous at times. I have to give Foxboro a lot of credit…they were prepared well.”
He added, “We had so many good nights shooting the ball and that has a tendency to even itself out. Tonight we didn’t shoot well and they did. It was the perfect storm.”
The Rocketeers led 12-8 at the end of the first quarter. Senior guard Jill Costello led North with five points, including one of only three 3’s that the Rocketeers would hit in the game. The rough shooting night (just 3-27 from beyond the arc) caught up to them in the second quarter.
Foxboro doubled up North 18-9 in the second to take a five-point lead into halftime. Carolynn Will came off the bench and knocked down three jumpers in the quarter on her way to 10 points on 5-5 shooting. Katherine Tamulionis capped off a 9-2 run that closed out the half with a huge three from several feet behind the arc.
In the third quarter, the Warriors continued to roll with a pair of free throws by Tamulionis (12 points) and a corner three from Kiersten Warner. After a Melissa Beaupre steal and transition layup, Harrison hit two free throws and senior guard Jamie Ballou buried a corner three to make it 36-23 for Foxboro. It was the largest lead of the night for the Warriors and the North crowd looked stunned.
The Rocketeers tried to get into a rhythm and Costello hit her second three of the night to cut the lead to eight, but then almost immediately picked up her fourth foul and was forced to sit with 2:04 left in the third. Tamulionis hit another three, but North would score the last three points of the third and trailed 41-33 going into the fourth.
Downs explained, “We mixed up our defenses a little more than we usually do because they’re, you know, a good perimeter shooting team. So, we knew that we needed to make some adjustments and do some switching. Everybody just contributed something.”
The final quarter was back and forth. Beaupre tried to bring North back with nine of her game-high 18 points and freshman Julia Strachan added five, but the Rocketeers lost their only consistent outside shooter when Costello fouled out with 6:07 remaining.
Still, the Kelley-Rex champions would not go down easily. After a pair of free throws by Harrison built the Foxboro lead back up to 46-40, a Beaupre free throw and then a Strachan three got the Rocketeers back within two. Will came back off the bench to hit a clutch jumper, which was matched by a layup from Beaupre on her third attempt (she also had 12 rebounds). Will hit another shot and this time it was Danielle Perron (seven points) that matched with a layup.
Freshman Kristin Bortolotti (11 points) hit a jumper, but North got a layup from senior Emily Peters (11 points) to stay within two. But, eventually North’s shooting woes would come back to haunt them and Harrison, Tamulionis, and Bortolotti combined to go 7-8 at the line to close out the game.
Downs marveled at her team’s poise, “That’s like 20 times the amount of people that they normally get at a game and just think the amount of nerves that a tournament game brings and we’re the underdog -- they could’ve gone into a helter skelter thing and turned the ball over, but they didn’t.”
DelBonis commented, “We have a lot to be proud of and we can reflect on that later. I’ve got one of the greatest groups of kids that I’ve ever coached. It was like the perfect team. It’s just unfortunate how it ended.
Foxboro will advance to face Davenport rival and No. 12 seed Stoughton, which upset No. 5 Westwood on Tuesday. The game will be played at Stoughton on Thursday night.
Harrison was excited about the opportunity. She said, “I’m so pumped. We lost to Stoughton twice and they’re a good team, but it wasn’t by much. So, we’re going to practice hard tomorrow and we’ll be ready at Stoughton.”
Josh Perry can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @Josh_Perry10.