CANTON, Mass. – With just under four seconds left to play in Monday night’s game at the Masciarelli Gym, Samya DaSilva got two hands on a defensive rebound and Canton was able to get a quick timeout to draw up one last play. Down three points and needing to go the length of the court, the attempted baseball pass was picked off near mid-court by Vanessa Ellis (five steals), who dribbled out the clock.

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The steal allowed Attleboro to squeak past the Bulldogs 32-29 in a competitive game that featured plenty of energy and effort but not much offensive flow and even less scoring.

“It’s a ‘W’ in the win column, so I’ll take it, but there’s things we need to work on,” said Attleboro coach Bri Bracken. “We learned a lot and again we’ve just got to play through contact. I think we look a lot for drawing fouls and just go up strong. It’s going to be a long week ahead of us, so we just need to take it day-by-day.”

Canton has lost seven times this season by 10 points or less. In the past two weeks, the Bulldogs have faced the top three teams in the Kelley-Rex and lost by a combined 11 points, while holding all three to under their season scoring marks.

Defense has been Canton’s calling card all season, but the Bulldogs, who graduated a combined 3,100 career points from last year’s roster, haven’t gotten the baskets they need to covert those impressive defensive performances into victories.

“We knew coming into the summer that defense was probably going to have to be something we hang out hat on and at least give us a chance to play with any of the teams,” Canton coach Jim Choquette explained. “In the third quarter we didn’t even give them a field goal, it was just a couple of free throws. The girls work so hard to set screens the right way, run plays the right way to get themselves opportunities.”

Things started out fine for the Bombardiers, who scored nearly half their total points in the opening quarter and jumped out to a 15-7 lead. Avery James buried a three and Kayla Goldrick (10 points, nine rebounds, and four steals) took a long lead pass from Lily Routhier for a quick layup.

Han Hong (five points) grabbed an offensive rebound to get Canton on the board and Erin Beatty followed a Goldrick layup with a put-back that cut the lead to 7-6. It set a pattern, as Canton was aggressive on the glass to limit the Bombardiers to one shot and earn extra possessions on offense. Beatty (four points) would finish with 19 rebounds, including 13 in the first half.

“She might be the best player I’ve ever coached in terms of overall rebounding in her career,” Choquette said of Beatty. “Without those extra possessions that Erin and Emily and all the girls come up with defensively, we’d be in real trouble. Those extra opportunities give us the chance to take extra shots, get back into our sets.”

Attleboro closed the first on an 8-1 run. Routhier (eight points and eight boards), who recorded a triple-double last week, drilled a three and James followed with a tough, pull-up jumper. Merry Bosh then closed the scoring for the Bombardiers by knocking down a deep two for an eight-point lead at the first intermission.

The Bombardiers scored 15 points in the opening eight minutes. Over the next 16 minutes, they managed just two field goals and eight points.

“We were just being too passive,” Bracken said. “Kids were trying to give it to another girl, thinking they may have a better shot. They were trying to be unselfish, but they always play unselfish. There’s a difference between playing passive and unselfish. It was a mess.”

Canton was hardly lighting up the scoreboard on the other end. The Bulldogs would score seven in the second and just five in the third, managing to only cut the first-quarter deficit in half heading to the fourth.

Bosh opened the second with a three to extend the lead to 11, Attleboro’s largest of the night, but those would be the only points for either team until the final 2:30 of the quarter. Beatty again turned an offensive rebound into points, using a nice post move to score. After freshman Tia Williamson got her only basket of the night (off a nice entry pass by Bosh), Jess Wright knocked down a pair at the line and DaSilva (seven points and three blocks) drained a three from several steps behind the line. Attleboro went to the locker room ahead 20-14.

Offense seemed to get even harder to come by after the break. Emily McCabe (five points and nine rebounds) turned a steal into a layup, but the score remained the same until Goldrick made a pair at the line with 3:19 left in the third. A minute later, Hong was able to slice through the lane for a layup and cut the lead to just three, but Ellis would add one free throw (her only point of the night) in the final minute of the quarter.

The fourth quarter almost felt like an offensive explosion compared to the previous two. Mercia Kolokithas drilled a three on a kick-out by DaSilva. Routhier followed with a baseline jumper to go back up three, but then Kolokithas got free from straightaway and nailed a second triple to tie the game at 25-25 with 6:06 to play.

Attleboro finally got a little going on the other end when Routhier restored the lead on another jumper. Goldrick followed with a tough runner in the lane to make it 29-25. Down five with 2:14 to go, McCabe would get a clean look at a straightaway three and brought Canton to within just two points.

DaSilva had a chance to tie the game at the line with 1:38 left, but hit one of two. As the shot clock was winding down 35 seconds later, Goldrick hit the biggest shot of the night, pulling up on the baseline for a short jumper and a three-point lead.

Attleboro was 4-of-8 from the line coming into the fourth, but went just 1-of-8 in the final eight minutes, giving Canton chances to tie, but the Bulldogs couldn’t find the clutch shot and the Bombardiers escaped, pulling even with Franklin in the win column.

Bracken told her team after the final whistle, “You guys need to have confidence in yourself. I know I have confidence in them. We’re a really good team. We have a long road ahead of us but, and I didn’t want to jinx it, us and Franklin are battling right now and you have to keep that in the back of your mind and we need to grind it out. Keep working hard and hustling every game no matter what.”

Attleboro (9-3) travels to Durfee on Wednesday in a game that could have a lot of say in Div. 1 power rankings. Canton (2-10) gets a second look at Notre Dame Academy, which held off the Bulldogs by four points in Hingham in early January.

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