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Sports

O'Connor, Marauders Overcome Cold First Half, Top Foxboro in Playoff Opener

After trailing for most of the game Monday, Dedham came out strong in the fourth quarter and beat Foxboro in the opening round of the MIAA South Division 3 playoffs.

At the time of tip off in the gym Monday night, the 20th-seeded Foxboro Warriors were widely considered to be the underdogs. Their record wasn’t as strong, and just last week the Marauders beat them by 10 in their own Winter Classic last week.

Just after tip off, however, Foxboro quickly ran up a lead, and would hold onto it for more than three quarters of the game.

It was the final minutes of the fourth quarter that mattered though, and it would be those final minutes in which the 13th-seeded Marauders were able to secure a 52-42 win to advance to the second round of the MIAA South Division 3 tournament.

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The shooting on both sides was a little cold to start the game, and both teams blocked one of their opponent’s shots in the first two minutes to fire up their fans.

Once Nick Couroupacis was able to sink one for Foxboro his team began to get a rhythm, and by the time Josh Patkin hit one from way downtown the Warriors were up 11-nil.

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“I think the excitement got to the kids a little bit and we made some mistakes that we normally don’t make,” Dedham coach Ed Hickey said, “but we have to credit Foxboro’s defense. They did a tremendous job.”

Despite the pair of blue jerseys on him, Dan O’Connor was still able to sink a 3-pointer to get Dedham on the board halfway through the first quarter. The Marauders then stepped up on both ends of the court and were able to get a 7-point run of their own going. 

Just as they did in the first, the Marauders struggled to get the ball inside during the second and continued to move the ball around the perimeter. It didn’t afford them many good looks, however, and only Carmen Dello Iacono and Nick Tarintino put in field goals.

Foxboro didn’t shoot any better, and like their opponents only two players, Alex Pacitt and Tom Procaccini, sank anything from the field. Despite the low scoring, the pace of the game moved along swiftly with hard plays and few whistles blown. At halftime the Warriors maintained an 18-13 lead.

“It was only five points at the half,” Hickey said, “but it felt like 50.”

It was almost as if two different teams came out of the locker rooms for the third quarter. Within seconds Tarintino blocked a shot from behind the shooter for a turnover, but Foxboro stole the ball back at the opposite end of the court. Couroupacis then sank a 3-pointer, and O’Connor quickly responded with one of his own to keep the Foxboro advantage at five.

Each time the Marauders seemed to get some traction and began closing the gap, Foxboro built it back up again. Dedham had it down to a single possession halfway through the third, but Jimmy Morse’s hook shot and Patkin’s 3-pointer helped Foxboro keep the lead.

Dedham’s Cam Clifford and Foxboro’s Drew McGeary traded buckets from behind the line to close out the quarter, and the buzzer sounded with the Warriors still on top, 31-27.

“At that point we were saying ‘this isn’t going to be our last half; this isn’t going to be our last quarter,’” O’Connor said after the game. 

It was early in the fourth when O’Connor, who was the game’s leading scorer with 23 points, tied the game at 32 with a shot from well past the 3-point line. 

“I was feeling it, and when you are feeling it you have to shoot,” O’Connor said.

Foxboro would tie it up from the charity stripe and then briefly take the lead again, but after that the Marauders held them to just four points – two of which came from foul shots - for the rest of the game. In the meantime, they would add 15 points of their own. 

It was still anyone’s game with less than two minutes left on the clock. Under pressure and deep in the left hand corner, O’Connor sank his fourth 3-pointer to put the game out of reach for the Warriors. 

“Late in the game we got hurt with the three,” Foxboro coach C.J. Neely said. “Obviously O’Connor is a big scorer and we wanted to keep him in check. He took over [in the second half] and that really separated the game.”

In the final two quarters Dedham nearly tripled their score, giving them a 50-40 victory and a trip to Rockland on Wednesday to play the 4th-seeded Rockets. 

“They’ve got a great gym to play in,” said Hickey. “It’s going to be loud and a great atmosphere. I’m looking forward to playing there.”

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