Taunton boys basketball’s quick offense blows past North Attleboro
TAUNTON— While the star trio of Trent Santos, Tristan Herry and Faisal Mass that helped lead Taunton to back-to-back Hockomock League titles may be gone, the new core of players are ensuring the Tigers still mean business.
Propelled by on offensive onslaught to start the second half, Taunton took down North Attleboro 69-51 Friday night in their home opener to improve to 2-0 on the young season.
“I thought once our speed got going, that’s going to be the way we play all year long,” Tigers coach Charlie Dacey said. “We’re fast. If we can pressure them defensively like that and then trap them like that, we’re in good shape, and the game just blew up at that point.”
The fast-paced offense was led by seniors Christian Lamour-Volcy and Chris Perault, who had 20 and 19 points respectively while junior Troy Santos added 11.
“They’re both open court guys,” Dacey said. ”If they get in the open court, they’re fast and they can finish.”
For Lamour-Volcy, it was an entire team effort that brought home the win for Taunton.
“It felt great,” Lamour-Volcy said. ”It was a team win so I can’t really take all the credit. We all win together as a team and it feels good.”
The Tigers and Red Rocketeers battled back-and-forth throughout the first quarter, with Taunton taking the early advantage before North Attleboro, thanks largely to six points from sophomore Ryan Bannon, took the lead only for buzzer beating layup by Perault saw the hosts draw even at 11-11 to end the quarter.
From there, the Tigers turned on the jets as they started the second quarter, putting up 13 straight points, six of which came from Perault, to take a 25-11 lead. The Rocketeers struck back, including back-to-back three pointers from sophomore Chase Frisoli and Bannon, but Taunton kept up the scoring as they tallied six straight to go into halftime with a 31-20 lead.
The Tigers came out of the gates red hot to start the third quarter as they extended their scoring streak to 15, led largely by Lamour-Volcy and Perault to go up 46-20, a streak which Dacey said was a major boost to team morale.
“That was a good confidence builder for sure,” Dacey said. ”Success breeds success. It’s working, so they work harder and then it’s working more and we work harder, it’s just a cycle.”
Despite North Attleboro’s best efforts, they continued to be outpaced by the hosts, who ended the third quarter with a 57-37 lead and had an even 12-12 split in the final quarter to seal the 69-51 win.
Despite the 2-0 start, Dacey said there’s plenty the team needs to work on to stay in the hunt for the league title, noting some improvements offensively from their 67-63 season opening win over Sharon.
“The half court offense the other night (against Sharon) was not great, but the half court offense tonight was decent because we exploited their weakness,” Dacey said. ”That weakness is not going to exist throughout the league. They were a little slow, and we took them off the dribble.”
He highlighted defense as the aspect of his team’s game in the biggest need of improvement and said he feels confident his squad will do just that as the season progresses.
“I’m optimistic that our defense is going to get better,” Dacey said. “It was okay tonight but there were mistakes and we just have to drill and drill and drill. When we get better defense, we can run, and when we can run, we’re successful.”
Taunton will look to make it 3-0 Tuesday when they host Canton (1-1).
Taunton Daily Gazette sports reporter Cameron Merritt can be reached at cmerritt@tauntongazette.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @CamMerritt_News. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to the Taunton Daily Gazette today.
This article originally appeared on The Taunton Daily Gazette: Taunton boys basketball’s quick offense blows past North Attleboro
