STOUGHTON, Mass. The Warriors of King Philip High School outlasted the comeback efforts of Stoughton's Black Knights to walk away with an eleven point victory, 76-65.
Stoughton looked to be in control on their home court in the opening minutes of the game, coming out of the gate hot and quickly putting up the first seven points of the game. King Philip was quick to respond however, uncorking a five point run of their own to cut the Stoughton lead to two points. King Philip kept the pressure on in the second part of the quarter, ending the period on a 6-1 run to take an 18-16 lead into the first break.
The Warrior offense kept their foot on the gas into the second quarter, scoring the period's opening basket on their way to a 15-4 run to start off the second. The Warrior defense, meanwhile, was stifling in the second, letting the offensive display have a large impact on the scoreboard, as they held the Black Knights just seven total points in the quarter.
The offensive charge was led in large part by the play of King Philip's role players coming off the bench. Sophomore forward Ryan Layman was nearly unstoppable in the first half, going five of seven overall from the field, including four of six from behind the arc. Layman's 14 first half points was just some of what the sophomore had to offer, as he also pulled down four rebounds in the opening two quarters.
After the game, King Philip head coach Tim Clifford praised the efforts of his sharpshooting forward, saying “He's young, so sometimes you're not sure what you're going to get out of him but he was good today.”
Clifford went on to compliment Layman's work in recent weeks, and said he expected to see improvement from Layman.
“We've been working with him to cut down his turnovers, cut down on some decision making issues, and he's really responding and stepping into his role. He's got a very bright future, he can do a lot of things well,” Clifford said.
After halftime, King Philip once again started off the quarter with a bang, dropping in the first eight points in the half during a 10-2 run. The Warriors would catch fire again later in the quarter, going on a 10-4 run to end the period, and take a comfortable 20-point lead into the last quarter of play.
The Warriors would need most of those 20 points to fend off the charging Black Knights in the final period, as Stoughton stepped up their play on both sides of the ball. After allowing King Philip to start off the second and third quarters with lengthy runs, Stoughton embarked on one of their own, putting up the first three points of the final quarter during an 8-3 opening run.
Stoughton applied the full court press roughly midway through the final quarter, frustrating the King Philip defense in the back court. The Black Knights were able to cut the lead as close as seven with one minute left, but could complete the comeback, falling by the final score of 76-65.
Stanley Sajous led the scoring for the Black Knights with 22 points, while Brandon Teixeira contributed 16. Ryan Layman continued his big night for King Philip, netting 10 more points in the second half for 24 points. He was trailed closely by teammate Jorge Casado, who had 20 points.
“We knew they were a tough matchup for us…Our game plan wasn't really able to come to fruition because they had so many guys that could knock down shots,” said Stoughton head coach John Gallivan.
Gallivan was able to find a silver lining in the loss however. “You never want to lose, but I think it was good for our guys, we were able to take something out of it,” he said.
Meanwhile, Clifford gave credit to Stoughton for the comeback effort while extolling his team's toughness after the victory.
“The guys did a great job of handling the pressure,” Clifford said .Any team like Stoughton who can shoot the three so well is going to be dangerous, they're never going to go away. They hit a lot of big shots, but our guys were able to not panic and keep trucking through...20 points is a lot to comeback from and our guys were able to show some mental fortitude and hang tough.”
Stoughton (4-9) is back in action on Monday, February 3 as they travel to North Attleboro, while King Philip (6-8) will host Canton the following day.
Brendan Murray can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @MurraySportTalk.