Schools
Canton High Boys Basketball Falls to Stoughton [VIDEO]
The Black Knights beat the Bulldogs 72-52 in Stoughton.
The Canton Bulldogs fell to the Black Knights on Tuesday night. Stoughton was able to carry the positive energy from the pregame ceremony into the game and take down Canton, 72-52, improving to 15-2 on the season.
Behind a monster performance from Aaron Calixte – who tallied 32 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists – the Black Knights were able to pull away in the second frame and finished with strong runs in each of the final two quarters.
“I thought in the second half we were much better defensively,” Stoughton head coach John Gallivan said. “Offensively, once we started moving without the ball, we were much tougher against their half court defense, which was very good.”
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The previous meeting between the two teams went similarly, with the Bulldogs sticking around for the first half before Stoughton prevailed in the second. Canton head coach Ryan Gordy had nothing but good things to say about Calixte last game, and the junior’s performance Tuesday night certainly didn’t change anything about that.
“Once again, hat’s off to Calixte,” said Gordy. “He’s a fantastic player. We did everything we could to stop him. He’s a legitimate division one player and he’s got a nice basketball future and career ahead of him. Talent won tonight.”
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Calixte scored his 1,000th career point on a three-point shot with 6:14 left in the fourth quarter.
The Bulldogs (9-9) were paced by a pair of seniors and a sophomore. Joe McCabe had 18 points, while classmate Chris Murray had 15. Sam Larson finished with 13.
“We were executing and we were running but shots weren’t falling,” Gordy added. “They went box-and-one for a couple of possessions on Joe and that took us off guard a little bit.”
With the game tied at 22 in the second quarter, it was a pair of juniors that extended the Black Knights’ lead to 8 in just a matter of seconds. Joe Bunce-Grenon (12 points) was able to drain a three from the corner and after a quick stop, Middleton (8 points) was able to drain a three from deep. After a Calixte steal, he found a streaking Middleton for an easy layup.
From there, Stoughton was able to pull away en route to the 20-point win.
Stoughton will now travel to play Franklin in the first-place game of the Hockomock Crossover, a team that Stoughton has beaten twice on the season.
Canton will travel to Mansfield for the third place game of the Hockomock Crossover.
