Sharon Girls' Basketball Team Rallies for Win Over Stoughton

The Sharon High girls' basketball team held off a late fourth quarter challenge to defeat Stoughton, 43-37, Friday night at Stoughton.

With the win, Sharon improves to 5-2 in the Hockomock League's Davenport Division and 6-2 overall, while Stoughton dropped to 3-6 in the league and 4-6 overall.

LeiAndra Busby was the top scorer with 13 points for the Black Knights, while Kayla Motley added 12. The Eagles were led by Abigail Silbert with 13, Jenna Kubiak, 12 and Karlie O'Driscoll added 10.

In the fourth quarter, Bushy scored on a drive to the hoop, cutting the margin to 38-35. Unfortunately for the Black Knights only had one basket for the remainder of the game by Motley. Kubiak scored and then Abarbanel made two free throws for the final margin.

COACHES' CORNER:
Sharon head coach Kate Horsmann: "This is a nice win for us. Stoughton is a team that is much better than their record shows. It's always good when you go on the road and get a nice win against a good team."

Stoughton head coach Janet Sullivan: "We played a very good first quarter. We have got some speed so we can throw press (at teams), but teams quickly adjust to your press, which give Sharon credit, they did. Once the intensity of our press was gone, we had trouble scoring. At times, it was painful to watch how slow our offensive sets were running. We need to pick up the pace there. I thought overall we did a good job. We held a good team, but in the second half, they started to hit their shots. Part of that was our defensive pressure wasn't as intense. Our problem was our offense, we needed to get more offense, more consistent offense and more people involved in the offense. We were pretty cold. One or two times times, I saw we had three or four shots in a row and just couldn't buy a basket. Give Sharon credit, they fought through, they are missing a couple of players and they still manage to come up the win. We have to work on creating more offense opportunities for ourselves."

STARTING LINEUPS: Sharon-Elyssa Hoffman, Katie O'Driscoll, Abigail Silbert, Lily Abarbanel, Jenna Kubiak. Stoughton-Kayla Motley, Amy Kelly, LeiAndra Busby, Ashley Medeiros and Jaquel Eley.

FIRST QUARTER-The Stoughton defense effort turned in an outstanding effort, holding the Eagles to just two-points, jumping out to a 7-2 lead. Ashley Medeiros had the only three-pointer of the quarter for the Black Knights.

FIRST QUARTER SCORING-Sharon-Kubiak 2
Stoughton-Medeiros 3, Bushy 2, Motley 2

SECOND QUARTER After scoring just two points in the first quarter, the Eaglers were able add 11 to their total, but they couldn't take lead away from the Black Knights. Kayla Motley made two free throws at the end half to give the Black Knights a 20-16 halftime lead.

HALFTIME SCORING: Sharon-Silbert 5, O'Driscoll 5, Abrabanel 2, Kubiak 4
Stoughton-Bushy 6, Medeiros 6, Motley 8

THIRD QUARTER: Sharon held Stoughton to just five points in the third quarter, which allowed the Eagles to take their first lead of the game at 26-22 on a basket by Abigail Silbert. By the end of the quarter, Stoughton was down, 36-27.

THIRD QUARTER SCORING: Sharon-Kubiak 4, O'Driscoll 5. Abigail Silbert 9, Stoughton-Motley 2, Whalen 1, Bushy 2

FOURTH QUARTER SCORING: Sharon Kubiak 4, Abarbanel 2, O'Driscoll,  Stoughton-Motley 2, Bushy 6,  Greer, 3