NORTH ATTLEBORO, Mass. – North Attleboro has been struggling with its offense all season long and that has made it difficult to close out close games in the fourth quarter. On Friday night at the Pickering Gym, the Rocketeers figured out ways to manufacture points in the final minutes and put up their best scoring night of the year.
Leading by seven after the third, North scored 17 points in the fourth quarter to pull out a 54-43 victory over Stoughton and end its three-game win streak. The teams entered the night as the league’s lowest-scorers and both set season highs in points.
“We need to play as a team,” said North coach Nikki Correia. “It’s frustrating when you’re not winning. Once we talked yesterday and said, you win as a team, you lose as team. You need to start playing together and stop making those mental mistakes and the game will come. We came out for the first time looking confident. We battled through mistakes and kept working hard and stuck to the game plan.”
Slow starts have been an issue for the Rocketeers as well, but North jumped out to an 8-0 lead that it never relinquished. Summer Doherty was the spark plug for the hosts, scoring eight of her game-high 23 points in the first. She also finished the night with three blocks, three steals, and seven rebounds.
Doherty started things with a pull-up jumper, then leaked out on the break to get a layup after Ava McKeon’s defensive rebound. She buried another jumper off an Abby Camelio assist to make it 10-2. Stoughton got off to a tough start and head coach Charmaine Steele Jordan called for more energy at the first timeout.
The Black Knights did come out with more life to close the quarter. After Raina Tat walked into a straightaway three, Makaiyah Singleton Rivera (11 points and nine rebounds) gave the visitors a much-needed lift with four points, both baskets coming off offensive boards, including one at the buzzer to send Stoughton to the bench down just 15-9 after one.
“She was a nice spark tonight for us,” said Steele Jordan of Singleton Rivera. “We started a little slow. We got good looks, shots just weren’t falling our way tonight. They’re gritty, they fight, it’s tough because I can’t ask them to go harder. They’re giving me all they’ve got.”
Singleton Rivera started the second with a jumper to cut the lead to as little as four, but Doherty answered with a three down the other end. Tat (six points) hit her second three of the night but Camelio (10 points and nine rebounds) matched it off one of McKeon’s four assists. McKeon (13 points and 12 rebounds) also started to get things going with six in the quarter, pushing the lead to 27-19. McKeon and Doherty combined for 21 of North’s 27 in the first half.
Stoughton went on a quick burst right at the end of the half, with Singleton Rivera making two at the line and then turning a steal into a layup, to send the teams into the locker room with North only up four.
Doherty didn’t slow down coming out of the break, starting the half with her second three. After Kate Bulger’s runner, Doherty added a jumper from Sam Faria’s skip pass over the top of the Stoughton zone. Evie Lam nailed a triple on the other end and then got an easy two after Singleton Rivera grabbed a rebound and managed to squeeze a pass to her while laying on her back.
North had stalled on the offensive end but got a big bucket before the end of the quarter when Camelio banked in a three to extend the lead to 37-30.
Again it was Doherty that got North going, starting the fourth with a layup. Camelio added another after McKeon’s rebound and long pass ahead to put North up by double digits. To that point, all but one of North’s points had been scored by the trio of Doherty, McKeon, and Camelio, but in the final quarter other players stepped up.
Taylor McMath (five points) went 4-of-8 from the line in the fourth and Faria got her lone basket after Camelio hit her with a long pass over the press coming out of a timeout. The Rocketeers may have put the game away sooner but shot 6-of-13 from the line in the fourth (and 15-29 for the game).
Stoughton continued to battle, despite losing Singleton Rivera and Jess Maddalena to injuries in the second half. Bulger (five points) drilled a three and assisted on one for Lam (eight points), while Vanessa Phelimond got her only points of the night with three-point play after a pass by Alyssa Edwards.
“I couldn’t be prouder of hard we’re trying,” said Steele Jordan. “We’re getting better executing, we’re getting better talking and listening on defense, which is what you want to see at this time of the year. I can’t wait for their heart and their hustle to convert into a win because they want it.”
With North running the clock down on every possession, Doherty sealed the win in the final minute by burying a three after a swing pass by McMath.
Correia said, “We have to play four quarters and a lot of time we may have two really good quarter and two quarters where they become stagnant, they stand around. We kept fighting through. We responded tonight, which we haven’t done in past games.”
North Attleboro (3-6) will try to carry that momentum into Monday night when it hosts Foxboro. Stoughton (0-9) will also be at home, on Tuesday, to face unbeaten Franklin.
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