KP Boys' Basketball Holds Off Canton To Grab Seventh Win

The Canton High boys' basketball team came into Wrentham on a mission. Despite the Warriors getting on the board first via two Jake Layman baskets, it was the Bulldogs that gained the upper hand in the first quarter of play.

Canton held a four point lead (18-14) through the first eight minutes of play, but King Philip eventually got back to playing Warrior basketball and came away with a hard fought 83-51 victory.

“I thought one of the things that we didn’t do was come out and play defense. [Canton head coach Ryan] Gordy does a great job with his team and they caught us with our heels back,” King Philip coach Sean McInnis said. “We made the adjustments on the defensive end, picked up the intensity and we really focused on rebounding and getting out in the open court running.”

Canton’s Scott Levy knotted the score at four in the early going. When Joe McCabe (a game-high 23 points before fouling out in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter) hit the free throw after his basket, the Bulldogs were up 7-4.  Behind McCabe, Canton took control of the first quarter and hold onto the lead midway through the second quarter before the Warriors took control.

Senior Mike Schmidt made his only basket of the game a big one, giving the Warriors their first lead at 21-19 since Layman’s opening buckets. 

From there, the two teams would trade baskets back and forth before the Bulldogs started to falter at the free throw line while KP opened its gap to go into the half up by eight (34-26).

“I’m proud of my guys; they fight, they’re scrappy and they play hard,” Canton coach Ryan Gordy said. “We had a game plan, and they executed it to the best of their ability. I couldn’t be more proud of my guys tonight. My guys were not the problem at all.”

King Philip continued to add to their lead as the game went on. Following three quarters of play, the Warriors held a 54-39 lead and not too far into the final stanza would sit Layman (15 points) on the bench.  John Mullane would chip in for 13 points, while Sam McDonald led all KP scorers with 17.

“For the first time in a long time, we proved that we have other scorers on this team other than Layman,” the KP coach said. “He was held to 15 points, but that was because he was doing a lot of other things. We had a well-balanced attack tonight because we had other people step up and do a good job.”

McInnis had high remarks about the way Canton played.

“They did a tremendous job on us in the first half and that’s a really good Canton team,” McInnis said. “I think that they’ll be a very good team come tournament time. In the Division 3 Tournament, they’re going to be very dangerous.”

King Philip improved to 7-1, while Canton fell to 4-3. The Warriors will continue their four-game home stand as they play host to Foxboro and Attleboro next week on Tuesday and Friday, respectively.