Attleboro High Boys' Basketball Team Falls to Oliver Ames

After trailing Attleboro 23-11 at the end of the first quarter, the Oliver Ames boys’ basketball team wasted little time coming back and overcoming a slow start Friday night in the Nixon Gymnasium on its way to a 89-68 opening night win.

Following a rough first eight minutes, the Tigers stormed to an 18-2 second quarter run. During that span, OA senior tri-captain Nick Bruha (led all scorers with 21 points) put his team ahead for good at 27-25 with his two technical foul free throws.

Junior guard St. Claire Ryan contributed with 17 points, while duo of senior forwards Jeff Babbitt (16 points, 8 rebounds in his first varsity start) and Alex Tepper (8 rebounds) also provided a spark in the victory.

“Everyone was just trying to get the first game jitters out at the beginning,” Bruha said. “We had three kids who didn’t start last year that were starting for the first time. We had [Andrew] Reardon starting at point guard, we had Babbitt coming in and Denzel [Bennett].

“As soon as we got the jitters out, we realized that we can relax and play with these guys. Then we just turned it up and played our game.”

Unlike OA, Attleboro had already opened its season this past Tuesday night and defeated Durfee in a non-league game to start the year at 1-0. After the first quarter, it seemed that the Blue Bombardiers would start the year at 2-0 as they went 9-of-13 from the field and a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line.

But as Don Byron and the rest of his OA coaching staff made adjustments, Attleboro went ice cold and shot 13-of-28 from the field the rest of the way and 14-for-21 from the free throw line.

“I thought our speed was good at the beginning,” said Attleboro coach Mark Houle. “Once they adjusted to the speed they settled down and came right back at us. They were the better team after the first quarter.”

While OA struggled with free throws – shooting a little over 50-percent – they were able to get to the foul line 38 times as a result of its speed and inside presence.

Bruha, Ryan, Denzell Bennett and Andrew Reardon drove to the hoop with Attleboro playing a little more man-to-man defense over zone, while Babbitt and Tepper helped create several second chance opportunities crashing the boards.

For a team that had a setback during pre-season due to the – Tepper, Ryan, Duane Johnson and Nick Cidado were all part of the team’s run to Gillette Stadium – Byron was pleased from what he saw.

“I was happy for what we did,” he said. “We were able to do a lot of things that couldn’t do much of during the preseason that we had. We were able to play a couple of the big kids together that we haven’t been able to do much of in practice – we were able to play Babbitt and Tepper together.

“I thought our guard play was very good,” Byron continued. “The fact that we got to the foul line 38 times is an indication of two things: that we took the ball to the rim hard, which is where we think our strength will be and secondly we got our share of offensive rebounds and that helped us get us to the foul line.”

Making his first varsity start, Reardon helped secure the victory with eight of his 12 points in the last eight minutes; giving his team a spark after Attleboro cut a nine-point halftime deficit to four at 60-56 at the end of the third quarter. Bennett, the other member of OA’s starting five, tallied nine points, while senior guards J.J. Joaloso and Stephen Edmonds led the Blue Bombadiers with 20 and 18 points, respectively.

Attleboro, now 1-1 on the year, looks to bounce back Wednesday when they travel to face its cross-town rivals from Bishop Feehan for a 6:30 p.m tipoff.

OA hits the road Tuesday night for its first Davenport Division matchup of the season against archrival Sharon at 6:30.