Health & Fitness
Sharon Boys Basketball Nips Oliver Ames
The Eagles downed the Eastonians with a James Fritzson 3-pointer with three seconds left on Friday night.
The Sharon High varsity boys basketball team won a thriller over Davenport Division rival Oliver Ames, 65-62, on Friday night in Sharon.
Junior guard James Fritzson said, “It was a tough and exciting game, and I think a lot of people really stepped up to help contribute to the win. It was just a great game overall.”
With three seconds left, Fritzson received a feed from junior guard Brian Mukasa, stepped into a 3-pointer from the right wing, and knocked down the closely-guarded trey to earn the Eagles the victory.
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“I knew that I had to step up to the challenge and hit the big shot so we could get the W and keep the [now six-game] win streak alive,” Fritzson said.
Sharon came back from a 12-point deficit, including a double-digit fourth-quarter hole. The Eagles trailed nearly the entire game against a bigger Oliver Ames squad.
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Sharon senior guard Sean Asnes buried three pivotal 3-pointers in the 3rd quarter to keep the Eagles within striking distance, and Mukasa poured in several key elbow jump shots in the final period.
Strong Eagles defense forced three consecutive Oliver Ames turnovers inside of two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, before Fritzson’s dagger shot.
The Eagles prevailed despite being severely undermanned; physical ailments relegated a quarter of the squad to shirt-and-tie on Friday.
Sharon had lost a pair of games to Oliver Ames in 2011-2012, by an aggregate total of five points. Friday’s victory was the first for the Eagles over the Tigers in several years.
Fritzson said, “It feels great! We came up short twice last year, and to beat them the way we did just feels amazing.”
A raucous Sharon student section of about 300 ‘Screamin’ Eagles’ packed the Sharon High gym and carried Fritzson off the court when the final buzzer sounded.
The crowd, according to assistant coach and SHS alum Erik Iverson, was the strongest for a basketball game since the Eagles were in the state finals in 2000.
Sharon’s victory improved the squad’s overall record to 6-3, and 3-3 in the Hockomock League. The Eagles head away from Sharon to face Hockomock foes King Philip on Tuesday and Milford on Friday.
Fritzson said, “I have a lot of confidence that we can keep this going.”