Oliver Ames girls top Canton in hard-fought battle

EASTON — Oliver Ames thumped Canton by 44 points earlier this week, but in the rematch on Thursday, there was no hitting cruise control for the Tigers.

OA worked every minute to not only fight off a tremendous effort from the Bulldogs, but also overcome its own miscues and shooting woes to secure a 53-43 Hockomock League win at William F. Nixon Gymnasium.

OA’s stellar defense made up for a 4-for-22 showing from 3-point range and uncharacteristically sloppy play as the Tigers (6-0) forced Canton (3-3) to turn the ball over 28 times.

“It wasn’t pretty at all,” said OA coach Elaine Clement-Holbrook. “I thought we were scrappy. Once we switched the defenses we got a lot of turnovers and that got us going.”

Canton stunned OA by jumping out to an early 9-0 lead, but the Tigers regrouped by turning up the defensive pressure to take a 23-19 halftime advantage.

Caroline Peper, who scored a team-high 15 points, helped create more separation as she drained a 3-pointer and scored off a baseline drive to begin the third quarter. OA then opened its largest lead, 44-31, with 6:18 remaining after Caroline Flynn went coast-to-coast and Maddie Homer scored off a terrific feed from Kaydance Derba.

But Canton hung tough behind the play of Kiara Cerruti and Sydney Gallery (14 points), who combined to score all but nine of the Bulldogs’ points.

Cerruti netted half of her game-high 20 points in the fourth quarter, including knocking down her fourth trey and scoring on a drive sandwiched around a bucket from Gallery to bring Canton within, 49-43, with 52 seconds left.

OA held off Canton from there and for Clement-Holbrook, career win No. 707 wasn’t going in the aesthetically pleasing category.

“Consider it ugly but effective,” Clement-Holbrook said.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/39oHlsB