SOUTH EASTON, Mass. – Eight days after beating the same opponent by 20 points, Foxboro turned the ball over by at least that amount and fell 46-43 at Southeastern Regional in an early afternoon game on New Year’s Eve. Junior forward Cam Seeley scored 15 points and pulled down 12 rebounds but it was not enough for the Warriors.
“We were just totally not ready to play, totally unprepared, not ready to compete at all,” explained head coach CJ Neely. “We’ve had two game like that this year, that we weren’t ready for, and we lost both of them.”
He added, “Unfortunately, we’ve let a couple games slip that I think were very winnable games. That’s going to make it a lot more difficult going forward to qualify for the tournament.”
Foxboro had its chances to win the game in the final minute. Seeley and Justin Zupanick each went 1-2 from the line to cut a three-point lead to just one. Following missed free throws by Southeastern, Foxboro had the ball back down 44-43 with 5.5 on the clock. Twice the Warriors failed to get the ball inbounds.
The first was deflected but Foxboro was fortunate to have it deflect off the chest of a Hawks player and back out of bounds. The second attempt was no better with the ball being deflected and stolen. Gabe Pereira (15 points) went to the line and knocked down a pair of free throws with just 1.9 left to ice it for the hosts.
Neely remarked, “That kid on the inbound was tough; he got a couple of deflections on us. He’s a big body in there and he got a couple stops where we couldn’t get what we wanted in there.”
The Warriors got off to a sluggish start and fell behind 6-0 in the opening minutes. Neely called a timeout to try and wake his team up. It seemed to work as Foxboro went on a 10-0 run to take the lead. Nolan Rogers had a pair of layups and O’Halloran and Zupanick both knocked down corner three’s to spark the run. The Warriors led 14-11 after one quarter.
The second quarter was similar to the first as both teams struggled with turnovers. With the game tied at 16-16, Rogers hit a layup and Seeley had a layup and a pair of free throws. A stepback three-pointer by Southeastern’s Jalen Jones cut the lead in half going into the break at 22-19.
Early in the third quarter, Foxboro looked like it may start to pull away. The Warriors scored the opening five points of the half, three by Seeley and two by Derek Gilreath on a backdoor cut. Unfortunately, Foxboro could not sustain the offense and the Hawks climbed back into the game behind five points from Fernando Quade and three’s from Jones and Pereira.
“In the third we had a little run…and again we let them back into it with hustle points,” reflected Neely. “I can’t say how many offensive rebounds they had in the second half, but when you give a team that many opportunities they’re eventually going to put in the hoop.”
Southeastern took the momentum early in the fourth quarter after another Pereira three put them up five. Freshman Mark Clagg (six points) hit his second three of the game and Seeley completed a three-point play to give the Warriors the lead. After a Pereira layup, Zupanick (nine points) answered with another three-point play, but it would be the last basket that the Warriors would make.
Quade got a layup on an offensive rebound and, after another Foxboro turnover, Jones (12 points) buried another three that turned out to be the game-winner for the Hawks.
“We didn’t have the composure that I would’ve liked,” summed up Neely. “We got away from just taking care of the ball. Not taking the easy play but trying to make something spectacular out of nothing. If we learn that, then we’ll be alright. If we keep playing like we did today then it’s going to be a long year.”
Foxboro (3-3) will travel to Taunton on Friday.
Josh Perry can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @Josh_Perry10.