TAUNTON, Mass. — It wasn’t until the final buzzer echoed throughout the Rabouin Field House that Attleboro head coach Mark Houle could finally breath a sigh of relief.
“You’re never safe when Troy Santos is on the other team,” Houle said.
The Bombardiers looked poised to close out a win over the Tigers on a handful of occasions in the fourth quarter, but it was Santos that willed the home team back into every time. It wasn’t until Michael Beverly’s two free throws with 0.3 seconds left that Attleboro finally put Taunton away, a 57-52 decision in a Round of 32 clash in the Division 1 bracket.
“[Troy’s] an outstanding player that can hit from anywhere,” Houle said. “I was proud of our guys, especially at the foul line at the end and we were 13-of-15 overall. We needed them and the kids stepped up and showed some toughness and some focus. Our younger players made some key plays for us, and also had some plays that make you realize they are young. It’s a learning experience every game and I’m glad we came out on top.”
A putback from junior Neo Franco (13 points, six rebounds, four assists) put the Bombardiers up five with a minute to go. Five isn’t typically a large lead, but this one was neck-and-neck and the largest lead at any point was seven when the Bombardiers went up 42-35 midway through the fourth.
Santos quickly got the ball up the court and drove to his right, fighting through contact for the and-one to cut the deficit back to two. Two free throws from Attleboro senior Justin Hanrahan (11 points, nine rebounds) preceded one from Franco as Attleboro’s lead was 51-46 with 30 seconds to go. It took Santos just seconds to get up the floor and launch a three that hit nothing but net.
Taunton forced the Bombardiers into a pair of timeouts after successfully trapping but had to foul with 10.6 seconds left and senior Jaiden Outland (11 points, six rebounds) pushed the lead to 53-49 with 10.6 seconds to go. Once again it was Santos that raced up the court and this time he leaned into a three that got a nice roll to make it a one-point game with 4.6 seconds to go.
Attleboro freshman Connor Houle calmly stepped to the line and sank two clutch free throws to get the lead back to three, and the Tigers ended up losing the ball on the way up court. A foul with 0.3 seconds left sent Beverly to the line to finish it out. Houle finished with a career-high 13 points.
“Basketball is a game of runs,” Mark Houle said. “We’ve been in situations throughout the course of the season that when teams start doubling us, and jumping us that we haven’t always made the right decision but it’s something we’re getting better at. [Taunton] put us in some situations where we turned it over, and we had a couple of turnovers that led to direct points in key moments that hurt us. That put them right back in it but our senior leadership, and Neo as a junior too, really came through for us.”
Santos finished with 14 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter, which accounted for all but one of the Tigers’ final 15 points.
“When you’re relying on one guy… we needed a second scorer,” said Taunton head coach Charlie Dacey. “The offense was being run all one direction and it will come back to bite you. We just became one dimensional. Some of the stuff he threw up there was tough, but you can’t rely on winning a ball game on shots like that. It’s too bad because it was a nice defensive effort.”
Before the thrilling end, the Tigers and Bombardier were locked into a rock fight for three quarters. Playing one another for the third team this season, there weren’t any secrets and points were at a premium.
Tyson Carter (seven points) had a strong start, and buckets from senior Chris Volcy (10 points, four rebounds) and freshman Jakari Innocent (seven points, eight rebounds) helped the Tigers take a 13-10 lead after a quarter, but both offenses struggled to get much going in the second.
Attleboro opened with an 8-0 run over the first three and a half minutes, a bucket from Outland, back-to-back putbacks from Hanrahan, and a layup from Franco gave the visitors a boost but they would only manage two points over the final four minutes (a steal and score from Beverly),
“Justin down low, he played hard,” Houle said of Hanrahan. “He’s our big, he might not be the biggest of the bigs but he battles hard down there, he really worked hard. He’s a crafty left-hander and he did a good job for us. Even if he isn’t scoring, just getting him touches opens things up for everything else.”
Attleboro’s defense did its part, holding the Tigers to just four points — back-to-back scores from Dimari Brown and Santos, and the Bombardier led 20-17 at half.
The trend continued in the third as Attleboro had its third straight 10-point quarter. Taunton more than tripled its second quarter output as Innocent had an assist, a steal, and a layup all within the first 40 seconds to get Taunton going.
After Hanrahan opened the scoring in the fourth, Houle had consecutive takes to the rim for points. He also had a key bucket with under four minutes to play that put the Bombardiers up 44-37. He finished with 10 of his 13 points in the final quarter.
“He’s a tough, gritty kid and he’s been challenged all year, and his teammates have a lot of confidence in him too,” Mark Houle said of his youngest son Connor. “He’s not shy to make the right pass which is most important and he’s also one of our top free throw shooters. He made some really mature plays at times.
“We want guys that have open shots to take them. [Connor] is certainly capable of doing it, but he’s also a good distributor. Tonight he was open a few times and he took the shots he’s capable of.”
Taunton got its offense going by amping up its defensive pressure, extending its press at times in the fourth quarter.
“That’s what we have, but [Attleboro] handled it enough,” Dacey said. “They never went over the edge. It felt like we almost had them at the breaking point but [Houle] was able to settle them down and they’d come back and handled it. We just weren’t able to sustain anything offensively and they found a crack here or there in the defense. Like I told the kids, they just made a couple more plays than we did.”
Attleboro boys basketball (15-9) advances to the Division 1 Round of 16 and will travel to #2 Lawrence on Tuesday at 6:30. The Lancers advanced with a win over King Philip on Thursday. Taunton finishes the season
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