Strong Second Half Leads Stoughton High Girls’ Basketball Past NA

Trailing 29-28 in the opening minute of the fourth quarter after North Attleboro’s Kerry Coyne scored to put the Red Rocketeers back up by one, Stoughton’s Megan Crimmins hit a two-pointer on the other end of the court, giving the Black Knights a 30-29 lead.

It turned out to be the game-winning shot. Starting with Crimmins’ score, the Black Knights went on a decisive 13-0 fourth quarter run, turning the one-point deficit into a 41-29 lead, holding on for a 46-38 victory Friday evening at home.  

With the win, the improves to 4-4, while North Attleboro falls to 6-3. This was just the second home game of the season for Stoughton.

The win was the 200th of Stoughton Coach Janet Sullivan’s career, according to assistant Jacqueline Deane, but Sullivan was quick to deter attention away from the personal milestone, instead focusing on the team’s win.  

“This is a big win,” Sullivan said. “This is a tough opponent to get back to .500 against…It’s a huge lift to go into the next stretch of our season.”

Sullivan said she was impressed with her team’s offensive output—the team scored 18 in the fourth quarter to put the game away—but it was the defense that had her talking after the game.  

“It was the best defense of the year. It carried over from the Mansfield game [Tuesday night],” she said. “The defense won the game.”

The difference between the North Attleboro game and was the third quarter.  

Tuesday at Mansfield, Stoughton was shutout in the third frame, seeing a 16-16 halftime tie turn into a 28-16 deficit heading into the fourth quarter en route to a 39-29 loss. But, Friday against North Attleboro, Stoughton held NA to just 5 third quarter points, turning a 22-19 halftime deficit into a 28-27 lead going into the final eight minutes.

“We’ve really taken a bad slump in the third quarter and this game we finally pulled through in the second half and took the lead that we needed to in the fourth quarter,” senior guard Jackie Kuhn said.

“[Thursday] we had a really good practice—a lot of rebuilding [after] the Mansfield loss,” junior guard Emma Zuk said.

“Our team had a great boxing out game. We never boxed out so well and that helped so much,” Senior forward Chrystal Holland said. “When [Nicole Daniels] got into trouble, everyone else stepped up to the plate and that’s what we needed—a whole team effort.”  

Sullivan said North Attleboro concentrated its defensive efforts on junior center Nicole Daniels, which opened the floor for her teammates.

Despite the attention, Daniels still finished with 9 points and 10 rebounds. Zuk added 8, while senior Katherine Chlus chipped in with 7. Holland led Stoughton with 13 points, including hitting shots on the final possession of the first and third quarters, giving Stoughton one-point leads on both occasions.  

During the 13-0 fourth quarter run, Chlus scored 5 points and Holland hit a big three-pointer. North Attleboro chipped away at the Stoughton lead, but couldn’t get any closer than seven points, as the Black Knights hit their free throws down the stretch, including a 4/4 effort from Zuk.

“I can’t say enough about [Zuk],” Sullivan said of her point guard. “She’s so poised out there.”  

In what was a back and forth game until Stoughton’s late run, the Black Knights took an 11-10 lead at the end of one. Stoughton came out strong in the second quarter, upping their lead to 17-12, but came up empty on their final six possessions of the first half, as NA went on a 10-2 run to take a 22-19 halftime lead.

North Attleboro scored first in the third quarter, giving the Red Rocketeers their largest lead of the game at 24-19, but in the final 13:25, spanning the third and fourth quarters, Stoughton outscored NA 27-14.  

“We played a really rough first half of the season…but I think that being .500 now we have a really good chance of making tournament if we keep working the way we are now,” Kuhn said.

Stoughton travels to Sharon on Tuesday, January 17 for a Davenport Division showdown.

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Check out a postgame video interview with Jackie Kuhn, Chrystal Holland and Emma Zuk in the media gallery above.