Stomach Bug the Culprit Behind Attleboro's Hoops Loss to Sharon

The varsity girls basketball team's season ended Friday with a 64-41 loss at Sharon.

TheBlue Bombardiers finished the year 2-18.

Only four seniors are on the roster, though: co-captain and forward Rachel Daley, co-captain and guard Danielle Dunkley and guards Teanna Gravel and Samantha Erwin.

"Hopefully, some of the young girls will be ready to step up and help out the team," head coach Mike Riley said.

Friday, Daley led Attleboro with 10 points. Junior forward Savannah Boyle added 9.

Sharon was led by two senior captains, forward Liz Wluka with 17 points and guard Aly Handler with 14 points.

"Liz did a great job inside," Riley said.

"We tried two, three different kinds of zones on them. We tried to match up man-to-man. And either way, she got the ball inside. We tried doubling her. Nothing seemed to work."

Riley said he better understood why in the locker room at halftime. 

Junior guard Jacey Copes and sophomore guards Abigail Oliver and Brianna Hockwarter either had the stomach bug or were recovering from it, he said.

"I knew something was wrong. I could tell. At halftime, the girls told me," Riley said.

Sharon led by 19, 36-17, at halftime.

The game was the teams' rubber match. The Eagles won round 1, 65-47, in their Dec. 10 season opener, at home. The Blue Bombardiers responded with a 64-63 win Jan. 14 in Attleboro.

Friday, "we played much better defense," Sharon head coach Kate Horsmann said.

"We were much more poised. We boxed out. We executed on offense," she said.

"We saw them. We didn't play good defense at all when we played them there. I think the girls were just really focused tonight. Everybody was kind of tense because we had split with them. Once we got our rhythm, I think we played very well."