Buzzer-Beater Sinks Stoughton High Girls' Basketball

The Stoughton High girls' basketball team was in action Monday afternoon at the Sharon Basketball Classic when they fell to Holliston, 52-50, on a Stephanie Berard buzzer-beater with no time remaining.

With the game tied at 50 in the fourth quarter, Stoughton had a chance to take the lead at the other end of the court, but turned the ball over, giving Holliston about 20 seconds to run a final play. 

"Our defense held for the first shot [attempt], but we did not box out, we gave them the second shot and against a team like this you give them too many opportunities and it's going to cost you and it did. Holliston played well, they deserved to win," Stoughton coach Janet Sullivan said. 

With the loss Stoughton falls to 12-7 on the season, but has already clinched a berth in the MIAA postseason tournament. Before the postseason begins Stoughton will face Notre Dame Academy on Tuesday in the regular season finale.

Holliston, meanwhile, improves to 13-6 with the dramatic win and will play Sharon on Tuesday. 

After being down 10-9 at the end of the first, Stoughton had a solid second period and took a 22-21 lead into the half. At the end of three quarters Stoughton was able to add to the lead taking a 34-31 advantage but the Knights could not hold on in the fourth quarter, in what was a back-and-forth game throughout.

Holliston had big games from sophomore Kylie Lorenzen and senior captain Lindy Kyger who eached scored 14 points on the winning effort.

Sophomore Heather Leger chipped in with 8 points, while senior's Caroline Romano and Catherine Tehan both helped scoring 6 points.

No basket was bigger though than senior Stephanie Berard's shot to win the game for Holliston as time expired. The two-point shot, from the left corner of the free throw line, was Berard's only basket of the game but it was one that sent Holliston home happy as they prep to face Sharon on Tuesday.

Stoughton's inside game paced the Black Knights Monday afternoon. Seniors Nicole Daniels and Ariene Ohimor and junior Kayla Motley scored 34 of Stoughton's 50 points. Daniels had 18 of those 34 while Ohimor had 10 and Motley had 6. Daniels also had 14 rebounds. 

Junior Ashley Medeiros had 8 for Stoughton while senior Mackenzie McGrath had 5 of her own. Senior captain Emma Zuk rounded out the scoring for Stoughton with 2 points.

"Some defensive lapses and not our best shooting day is going to put it in the loss column," Sullivan added. "But we'll come back [Tuesday], it's our last game of the season. We'd like to finish on a positive note and then we wait for our seeding in tournament."

Stoughton's game with Notre Dame Academy is Tuesday at 5 p.m. at Sharon High School.

Stoughton Patch editor Jeffrey Pickette contributed reporting.