NORTH EASTON, Mass. - Oliver Ames hit just three three-pointers through the the first three quarters against Acton-Boxborough.
They hit three more in the fourth quarter and came up with a stop on the last play of the game to escape with a 57-56 win over the Colonials.
Senior Chris Kyne finished with eight points with six coming in the final frame off two key three-pointers. With the game tied 42-42, Kyne drained a three from the corner to give Oliver Ames the lead. With the Tigers down 48-45, OA senior Ryan Carney (game-high 22 points) drained a deep three to level the game.
Then with just two minutes left, Kyne hit another three from the opposite corner to put OA up 53-50, a lead the Tigers wouldn’t relinquish.
“Watching [A-B] play, that’s a tough style for teams to play against,” Oliver Ames head coach Don Byron said. “They work the clock, they don’t make mistakes, they’re well coached. They are all pretty good players and they just play a nice style.”
With 10 seconds left, A-B’s Matt Bullock drove to the hoop for a bucket to make it 57-56. On the ensuing inbounds, OA was set to let the ball out of bounds after a deflection, but Bullock dove for the ball and threw it back in and off an OA player to gain possession with 5.6 seconds left.
A-B freshman Mitchell Doherty inbounded the ball and took back possession after a switch but his shot - contested by OA senior Brendan Welch - at the buzzer hit the front of the rim and rolled out to give the Tigers the win.
“Kyne hit two big threes,” Byron said. “In a game where scoring was a premium he did a nice job.”
Scoring truly was at a premium in the first quarter as both teams struggled to get the offense going as their tried to figure one another out. The Colonials took a 10-7 lead into the second quarter, but were quickly down after a 10-2 run by the Tigers.
Back-to-back three’s from Carney followed by back-to-back buckets from Shawn Cardoza game OA a 17-12 lead three minutes into the second quarter.The Colonials were able to stay even the rest of the quarter as OA led by just three, 23-20, at half.
The Tigers carried a slim lead, 37-35, into the fourth quarter after Welch was able to go up and under to beat the buzzer in the third.
Beyond Carney’s 22 points, he added five assists and three rebounds. Senior Rael Handy had seven points, four rebounds and four assists and Cardoza finished with seven points off the bench. Bullock finished with 21 points and Luke Davidson added 11 points, both off the bench for A-B.
Oliver Ames (3-1) will now play in the championship game of the Muscato Holiday Tournament, taking on Walpole on Tuesday at 7:00.
“We fully understood the first five or six games would be a handful,” Byron said. “To this point, being 3-1 we’re pretty happy to that.”
Ryan Lanigan can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @R_Lanigan.