By Josh Perry, Managing Editor
TAUNTON, Mass – The Taunton Tigers defense was dominant in the first half. Durfee was only able to manage 10 points in the opening 16 minutes of play, but the Hilltoppers found a rhythm in the second half and stormed back to steal a 50-48 road win.
“Our defense was absolutely incredible in the first half. I thought we let our guard down a little in the second half,” noted Taunton head coach Walter Harrigan. “We have to be able to close on them and we didn’t close out the way we can.”
Despite the improved offensive play of Durfee after halftime, Taunton still had the game under control with a 40-30 fourth quarter lead. But the Hilltoppers trapping full-court press continued to force turnovers and sparked a 14-0 run that gave Durfee its first lead of the game.
Harrigan was surprised that his team struggled against the press.
“I think we got the jitters because usually we are very good at beating the press,” he said. “We’ve got seniors on this team but a lot of them haven’t played in games like this. I don’t we think adjusted well to it, but we’ll get better. This is going to be a good team.”
After losing the lead, Taunton (3-3) had an opportunity to tie after a Kim Hixon scored while being fouled. The foul was deemed a flagrant and a technical foul was also called on the Durfee bench. Hixon, who finished the game with a team-high 16 points, completed the three-point play and Sahar Khalil made one of two technical free throws leaving Taunton trailing 46-45.
See more photos from this game in the photo gallery.
After a Durfee layup, Taunton had one last chance to tie but Soraya Leon’s three-pointer came up short.
“We forced some stuff,” admitted Harrigan about his team’s offense in the second half. “We were trying to take some time off the clock but we took some shots that we really didn’t need to. Our passing let us down I thought. We gave them a shot to win.”
Khalil finished the game with 10 points, while senior forward Emily Richman finished with eight and center Angie Martinez had five.
Taunton will face a difficult stretch of league games over the next few weeks beginning with a home game on Friday against Mansfield.