Shorthanded Tigers Fall to Duxbury in Lehmann Tourney Finals

When the Oliver Ames boys' basketball team took the floor Monday night in the Harry Lehmann Tournament finals against Duxbury at Bridgewater State University, the Tigers' starting center, Denzel Bennett, took to the circle for the jump ball.

Bennett, normally a small forward, is listed at 6-1 on the Tigers' roster.

Duxbury's starting backcourt, guard Jason Marino and guard Curtis Owen, are listed at 6-4 and 6-3 respectively.

The Tigers were playing without forward Duane Johnson and starting center Jeff Babbitt, who was out because of illness. And, in the end, a serious height disadvantage was too much for them to overcome.

The Tigers were outscored, 25-11, in the fourth period and fell to Dragons (7-9), 68-55.

"If you don’t shoot the ball well against these guys – because they are so big and we’re not - it's going to be a one and done," OA coach Don Byron said. "The first four minutes of the period, we had some difficulty. We had some good shots and good looks – they weren’t much different than what we had seen. But, if they don’t fall you’re probably not going to get an offensive rebound against these guys. We fell behind a little bit."

Despite being undersized, the Tigers were able to scrap their way through an evenly-matched battle throughout the game. While they fell behind 12-0 to start the contest, OA outscored Duxbury, 33-24, during the second and third periods.

Without Babbitt and forward Duane Johnson, a platoon of front-court players, including Bennett, John Moroney, Nick Cidado and Ryan Evans helped keep OA in the game.

The Tigers made up for their size in different ways. OA took five charges on the night - one by Moroney and four by Bennett.

"He’s terrific," Byron said of Bennett. "He has a real knack for that, and those are game-changing type plays when they happen. He’s very good at that. He had to battle, too."

The Tigers were led offensively by senior captain Nick Bruha, who finished the game with 15 points. Junior guard St. Claire Ryan finished with 12 points.

Duxbury was led by Curtis Owen, who finished the game with 28 points.

Despite the high total, Byron was impressed with Ryan's ability to cover the 6-3 guard. Owen fouled out midway through the fourth period.

"[Owen]'s a terrific offensive player," Byron said. "That’s a tough matchup for anybody and we guarded him with a 5-10 player, which is tough. He guarded him well."

With the loss, OA dropped to 12-8. The Tigers await seedings for the MIAA State Tournament, which are slated to be announced Friday.