During Emotional Night at Southeastern Regional, OA Boys' Hoops Comes Away With Victory

Fans crowded the Southeastern Regional High School gymnasium Tuesday night during the boys' basketball game against Oliver Ames to pay tribute to 2010 graduate James "Dougie" Ortiz, who was murdered in Brockton last August.

Southeastern Coach Dean Duquette thought dedicating the game to Ortiz was fitting. And, despite the 64-48 loss, he was proud to see the standing-room only crowd come out to support a fallen classmate.

"A lot of my guys come back to hang out," Duquette said. "They’ll come back on a Saturday when everyone’s around so I just wanted to do something for his family. Sometimes, when they leave you don’t know how good of a guy they were."

The pre-game ceremony added an extra spark to the hometown crowd and to the play of the Hawks. Unfortunately for the Southeastern, it wasn't enough to stop the Hockomock League Tigers.

Knowing it would be an emotional roller-coaster, OA Coach Don Byron braced his team.

"I think the kids did a good job of fighting off a situation that wasn’t going to be easy," he said. "We came into an atmosphere where this is always a big game on Southeastern’s side. We’re coming off a very emotional game at King Philip the other night. The ceremony for Ortiz got everybody in a mood that we had to fight off. There’s a lot of stuff we had to fight off and we had some kids that had to play in some different roles."

In particular, Lance Handy stepped in to play a significant role in runnning the offense off of the OA bench. He was joined by freshman Ryan Carney, who, up from the JV's, scored his first five points in a varsity game. The two were able to step in for some injured players.

Despite holding a lead throughout the entire game, the Tigers never seemed to run away with it. Two steals and resulting layups from guard Malik Bean (12 points) and a break-away slam dunk from forward Sevon Edwards (4 points) got the crowd on its feet in the fourth quarter and kept the Hawks in the game until the end.

Duquette said Southeastern takes pride in playing until the last whistle.

"We’re always working hard," he said. "We want to get ready for the tournament if we make it. We’ve got to win four games out of the next nine."

The Hawks are now 6-5 (6-2 Mayflower League). The road ahead will feature a difficult schedule that includes Westport, Canton, Bristol Plymouth and Bishop Connolly.

Despite Southeastern's persistence, the Tigers were able to cement the game with the help of Jeff Babbitt, who scored 5 of the Tigers' 9 points in the final period while securing pivotal rebounds. The OA center finished with 13 points, second on the team to point guard Nick Bruha, who finished with 20.

"Thank goodness for him," Byron said. "We don’t have a really second one of those who’s a legitimate post player. Kids like him are hard to find and we’re glad to have him."

OA will be at home against Davenport Division foe Sharon Friday at 6:30 p.m.