FOXBORO — The Foxboro girls basketball team is tough enough to stop when the Warriors are having a so-so night.
But when Foxboro is sharing the ball as well as it did Friday night against Pentucket, good luck, because the Warriors are darn near unbeatable.
In a dominant effort, top-seeded Foxboro earned a 78-48 win over No. 9 Pentucket in a Division 3 state quarterfinal.
Foxboro ups its record to 22-2, while Pentucket’s season ends at 21-2.
Of all the statistics that told the story of Foxboro’s efficiency, none more than the Warriors assisting on 20 of their 31 field goals, unofficially. Foxboro seemed happy to share the ball and make the extra pass.
“That’s what we aim for, a minimum of 15,” Foxboro coach Lisa Downs said. “That’s one of my big stat lines is the assists, because we do have so many girls that can score on our team. That makes us very hard to scout, and then determine who are you going to pay most attention to when they know that all five on the floor can score.”
Pentucket coach John McNamara does not need to be convinced of Foxboro’s strength.
“I think they could be the best team in the state,” McNamara said of Foxboro. “But one off night that happens, like it does in the NCAAs (and they could lose). But I think they’re the best team in the state.”
Leading the way for Foxboro were junior forward Addie Ruter with 23 points, junior guard Kailey Sullivan with 21 points and six assists, and senior guard Camryn Collins with 17 points.
Amelia Crowe led Pentucket with 16 points.
“Definitely, we have so much talent on the team that if we use everyone, we can have games like that and score a ton of points,” Sullivan said.
If there were any drama on how this would end up, Foxboro eliminated it in the second quarter. With a 17-13 lead after the first quarter, the Warriors went on an 11-3 run, capped by Sullivan trey off a Ruter assist.
After going into halftime with a 38-25 lead, Foxboro applied a finishing touch in the third quarter, as it started the second half with a 13-0 run, as Collins scored off a Sullivan pass.
Ruter added a putback just moments later, and Foxboro pushed its lead to 30 points at 57-27.
Foxboro, which won the D2 state title a year ago, has the look of a team that wants to repeat.
“It is (tough to stop), because now (Ruter) is getting doubled or tripled, even, she can kick it out to Sully or Cam or Erin (Foley), and they’re open for shots. It’s a good inside-out game that a lot of teams don’t have,” Downs said.