Pires' Dunk Lifts OA Boys to Tournament Clinching Win over Canton

At the end of the first half, went on a 5-0 run to cut the Oliver Ames lead to 32-19 thanks to the efforts of junior guard Joe McCabe. Coming out of the second half, the Bulldogs went on another 8-2 run at the beginning of the third quarter to cut the lead OA lead to single digits at 34-27.

But then, senior forward and tri-captain Mason Pires (16 points) changed the momentum in a flash.

After a steal by junior guard Nick Bruha (23 points), Pires broke away from the Canton defense on the OA fast break. From there, the senior went in for the slam-dunk and brought the crowd at Nixon Gymnasium to its feet.

“It’s pretty sweet to finally get to throw one down,” said Pires, who had been waiting for his moment to throw a dunk down. “Once I got the ball I had to take a chance.”

That momentum-changing dunk gave the Tigers an energy boost as they were without a few members of the team due to injury or illness, including senior tri-captain MJ DeDonato.

Despite all the injuries – and the heartbreaking four overtime loss at Stoughton Tuesday night – OA pulled together and came away with a 64-47 victory Friday night, and in the process, clinched a spot in the Division 2 State Tournament.

“A couple of things that were real important in this one were coming off the Stoughton game and the energy that goes into that. That’s a hard thing to create the energy from that game all over again,” said Oliver Ames head coach Don Byron about Friday’s victory.

“For the most part we were able to overcome that. I thought we were a bit sloppy with the ball at points along the way and we didn’t capitalize on a couple of things that we could have. But generally coming into this was to make sure that we had the energy level that we always have and make sure that it doesn’t drift because of all that we put into the game before [against Stoughton].”

And while Byron was pleased with the victory, he admitted that Pires’ dunk was a big turning point in the contest. That, along with switching to a 1-3-1 zone during the second half helped the Tigers create numerous turnovers as McCabe and Canton were unable to get anything going after its run in the beginning of the second half.

“I think he got the crowd involved a little bit with that dunk, which was nice,” said the OA coach. “We also changed the defenses up and we got the ball out of [Joe] McCabe’s hands a little bit. I thought he was able to settle into a comfort level there and we were trying to get him out of that comfort level. For about a three or four minute period I thought we did a great job in changing the defense to disrupt their tempo.”

With the win, the Tigers are guarnteed to finish at least in second place in the Davenport Division and will play North Attleboro, Franklin or Attleboro in the Hockomock Showcase next week.

But the OA boys (6-6 Hockomock, 5-2 Davenport) aren’t getting to ahead of themselves as they conclude its home slate Tuesday night when they host Foxborough.

However, they can be pretty happy about clinching that all-important spot in the state tournament becoming the seventh team to do so in the Hockomock League (the winner of the Sharon-Stoughton game will notch its 10th win of the year to clinch another spot for the Hock).

“We’re in a competitive league this year, so it’s tough,” Pires said. “But we finally got our ten wins and we’re really excited about that and that’s all that matters.”

Canton drops to 5-12 after tonight’s loss as they look to help OA out in the race for the Davenport Division crown when they host archrival Stoughton Tuesday night.