Bourne Boys Break Wareham's 27-Game Streak

By: Dan Crowley
Published: 12/30/10

The Canalmen broke the string at 27. The Wareham boys’ basketball team had won 27 straight South Coast Conference games before running into Bourne Tuesday night. For the first time since 2004, BHS came out on top, defeating the Vikings, 47-46.

“It was a great team effort,” Coach Scott Ashworth said of the victory. “Our club played hard. We really buckled down defensively and held them to 46.”

The Canalmen led throughout the game and entered the fourth quarter with a 38-32 advantage. The Vikings turned up the pressure, but crisp passing by Bourne kept the ball moving. When foul trouble loomed early in the quarter, Ashworth turned to the bench with Jack Canterbury and Blade Levenworth jumping into the fray without missing a beat.

With five minutes to play, John Page put Bourne up by 10, but Wareham’s Sheldon Frye, the game’s leading scorer with 16 points, hit a three-pointer from the top of the key. Jimmy Halliday answered for BHS with 2:29 left with a three-pointer, putting the Canalmen back on top.

The Canalmen had a chance to add to their lead down the stretch, but in the final three minutes only hit one of six free throws.

The next six points came from the Vikings as they closed to within four points with 28 seconds to play. With the clock down to three seconds, Wareham’s Aaron Baptiste hit a deep three-pointer, cutting the Bourne lead to a point. With 1.8 seconds left, a shot from midcourt by the Vikings bounced off the rim, putting the game in the win column for the Canalmen.

The Vikings tied the game in the first quarter on a three-pointer by Baptiste, but Page, Halliday, and Erik Smith went head-on after the Viking defense, with Smith driving the lane for two points and drawing a foul. Making the free throw, Smith put BHS up, 14-6. Halliday finished the first quarter with a pretty turn-around jumper at the buzzer.

Wareham came to within three points of the lead midway through the second quarter, but a twisting drive to the net by Page and a lay-up by Cody Sloniecki off a bounce pass from Smith kept the momentum in Bourne’s court as the Canalmen held a 28-21 lead at halftime,

Another three-point play by Smith put BHS up by 10 to open the second half. Sloniecki held the lead with a jumper and Halliday put Bourne up by a dozen with a put-back.

Bourne held a slight edge off the glass, led by Page with 10 rebounds. Halliday led a balanced scoring attack for Bourne with 13 points. Page and Drew Girouard each had nine and Sloniecki and Smith both finished with eight.

Bourne was edged by Case Thursday, December 23, as the Canalmen suffered their first loss of the young season by a score of 55-54.

BHS trailed by just three points at the half in the back-and-forth contest. The Cardinals held the lead by a basket at 43-41 entering the final eight-minute quarter, but the size down low gave Case the edge.

Jim Halliday led BHS with a game-high 17 points that included two three-pointers. Blade Levenworth (6 points) also buried two from outside the three-point arc.

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