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Sports

Attleboro Lady Bombardiers come up short against North Attleboro

Attleboro High girls' basketball team struggled in the second half and fell to their rivals North Attleboro in the first round of their Holiday Tournament.

The Attleboro High girls' basketball team played maybe their best 16 minutes of the season and trailed by only two points to the visiting North Attleboro Lady Rocketeers in the opening round game of the Attleboro Holiday Tournament.

One of the upsets of the young season seemed to be on the cards, but a tough third quarter ended their hopes and North Attleboro cruised to a 65-47 win.

Attleboro struggled all night to combat North Attleboro's strength inside as the Rocketeers piled up the second-chance points and points in the paint.

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Missy Traversi, the Attleboro coach, pointed to a lack of consistent four quarters. "The first two quarters we were outstanding, defensively we committed to what we wanted to do, we stuck to the scout. A team like that, we can play with them, but unfortunately, we did not have four quarters put together."

The Bombardiers were led by sophomore Brianna LaPlume, who battled the bigger North Attleboro forwards on her way to a team-high 15 points.

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Traversi was proud of the young player's performance.

"It's desire, I need more players like Brianna LaPlume who are willing to dive for the loose ball, sacrifice their bodies for the team, that's what I need."

The Lady Rocketeers went to their usual weapons, senior captain Meghan McHugh, who scored 22 points and notched a double-double, and senior guard Jill Cullen, who scored 15 (11 in the second half). The tandem combined for 11 points in the decisive 16-4 third quarter that put North Attleboro into a commanding lead.

Coach John Del Bonis was complimentary of how hard Attleboro made them work for the victory.

"That's a well-coached team, they're aggressive and they defended us well," said Del Bonis. "We had to make some changes in the second half. Meg McHugh was terrific on the boards, but we have to control the backboards. We expect to out-rebound teams."

Earlier in the evening, Bishop Feehan came back from a tough first half and pulled away in the third quarter to beat Taunton, 70-47, in the other opening round game.

North Attleboro and Feehan will face off again for the Holiday Tournament crown on Thursday night in what should be a very close game.

Del Bonis acknowledged Feehan pose a very different problem for his team. "We have to beat their pressure. If we beat their press than we have a shot to win. They're good, they have a lot of athletes."

Thursday night, the Taunton Tigers will take on Attleboro in the consolation game at 5 PM. The championship game will be at 6:30.

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