RANDOLPH, Mass. - The first half and second half were as different as night and day.
Stoughton turned a 15-point deficit at halftime into a 14-point win as the Black Knights took down Natick, 74-60.
The Black Knights only mustered up 20 points through the first two quarters but put up an impressive 54 points in the second half to get their first win of the season.
“At halftime all we talked about was the press,” Stoughton head coach John Gallivan said. “Not about missed shots or not attacking the gaps in their zone, which was very effective in the first half. We said if you do the press right, it will lead to baskets and that will lead to more more steals and more baskets and the little things will take care of the big things.”
Natick’s 1-3-1 and 2-3 zones early gave Stoughton problems on offense, so the Black Knights struggled to register a lot of points. After the first quarter, Stoughton trailed Natick 14-10.
The Black Knights tried to implement a press in the second quarter but were unable to get it working at a high success rate. The first problem was getting enough points to set the press up and the other part being the RedHawks ability to break it.
But all changed in the second half with Natick up 35-20. From the get go, Natick had two turnovers in the first 19 seconds. The press continued to work with Stoughton able to anticipate where the passes would end up and turned them into quick buckets.
One big reason the offense got going was the effort of junior Brandon Teixeira, who had been held to just one field goal in the first half. With just over a minute and a half left in the third quarter, Teixeira came up with a big block on Chuck Jacobsen defensively and on the other end of the court, drained his second of three three-pointers in the quarter to cap a 15-4 run for the Black Knights.
“I’ve been telling him all along that the lid would come off and the ball would go through the hoop,” Gallivan said. “We’ve done some nice things this year and we just haven’t put it in. We don’t try to talk about it that much. I knew the day would.”
After trailing by 15 to start the third, Stoughton trailed by just two, 45-43, heading into the final quarter. Just 30 seconds into the final frame, Teixeira drained his fourth three of the game to give Stoughton its first lead since the first basket of the game. Natick briefly took the lead back at 47-46 but a three from Dennis Rebelo (game-high 22 points, 10 rebounds) gave Stoughton the lead for good.
“I thought Dennis came to play at 5:00 when everybody was supposed to and then a lot of guys came to play in the second half,” Gallivan said. “To Dennis’ credit he was here all along, he had a nice game.”
The Black Knights went on to outscore Natick 31-15 in the final quarter to come away with their first win.
Beyond Rebelo's 22, Teixeira finished with 17 points while senior Mike Manning added eight points and nine rebounds. Off the bench for Stoughton, Malik Smith dropped 10 points with three boards, senior David Wilson had eight points and four boards and sophomore Ryan Sullivan had five points and three boards.
Stoughton (1-3) will take on Hingham in the championship game of the Blue Devils Holiday Classic on Tuesday at 7:00.
Ryan Lanigan can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @R_Lanigan.