NORTH EASTON, Mass. - Walpole outscored Oliver Ames 16-8 in the third quarter and hit 11 free throws in the fourth quarter to hold off the Tiger's late push to win the Val Muscato Holiday Tournament 63-59 over OA.
Walpole opened the second half on a 14-0 run until Oliver Ames finally picked up their first points with 2:19 left in the third quarter. The Tigers outscored Walpole 20-16 in the fourth quarter, and limited them to just one field goal, bringing it as close at two at 58-56. But Walpole hit 11 of their 20 attempts from the free throw line in the fourth to help keep the lead.
"We had a little bit of an offensive lull there in the third quarter but to our credit, we got it back to two," Oliver Ames coach Don Byron said. "Anytime you do that with anybody, that's tough to do, but to do it against a team like Walpole, a team thats good, it shows a lot about us. I told the kids, it's not one of the ones you go home and beat yourselves up over."
Walpole senior Ryan Fogarty scored 31 points - 11 in the first half, 10 in the third quarter, and 11 in the fourth quarter that included eight free throws - and was named the tournament MVP. Fogarty scored eight of Walpole's 14 points to open the second half and gave OA fits by constantly driving the basket and drawing fouls in the fourth quarter. He went 8/12 from the charity strike in the final quarter.
The Rebels used their length to their advantage, going with a 1-3-1 zone on defense that kept Oliver Ames' shooters further back off the three point line and it showed, as the Tigers shot 8/34 from beyond the arc.
"We put in a 1-3-1 this year and it's new for us, but we're kind of getting better at it," said Walpole head coach David St. Martin. "We force teams to make contested three's without giving up layups. If teams get hot, they can shoot their way out of it. They weren't getting any easy baskets really but we just have to put teams away."
The Tigers hit half of their three pointers in the final quarter, but almost all were contested or from deep.
"The 1-3-1 pushes the whole offensive out towards mid court if you allow it to do that," Byron said. "Odd front zones can be a little difficult for shooters. They play it well, they have some size and length so that adds to it."
JP Abela led Oliver Ames with 14 points while Nick Cidado added 13 and Ryan Carney had 11 for the Tigers.
"When you put the whole package together it's not something you can be extremely disappointed about," Byron said. "You want the win obviously but you can see how much we've improved over the last two weeks."
The Tigers will return to action on Friday when they travel to Mansfield.
Ryan Lanigan can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @R_Lanigan.