Oliver Ames Girls' Basketball Improves to 2-0 With Dominant Win Over Foxborough

The Oliver Ames girls' basketball team got off to a hot start and never seemed to cool down against the Foxborough Warriors Tuesday night.

The 63-45 win at home improved the Tigers to 2-0 to start the season.

OA's transition game, led by senior point guard Asia Mitchell game propelled them Tuesday.

"Asia did a great job taking the ball to the rim and as a result of that, defensively Foxborough had to respect the fact that she was going to take it to the rim and she just had a couple of great passes and we had some great 2 on 1’s," Oliver Ames coach Elaine Clement-Holbrook said.

For Foxborough, which dropped to 3-1, coming into Nixon Gymnasium and facing the Tigers' high-powered offense led by Mitchell and senior forward Caitlyn Abela was a difficult task, even though the Warriors were undefeated coming into the game.

"I think we came in a little intimidated," Foxborough coach Lisa Downs said. "It’s Oliver Ames so they have a hard time focusing on the fact that they are able to beat a team like this - especially this year when we have improved so much since last year."

Downs' Warriors trailed the Tigers throughout the whole game. They were never able to recover after falling behind 21-13 after the first quarter. Despite the loss, senior center Ashley Snyder finished with 17 points.

"She’s a fantastic player," Downs said. "They actually kept her to a minimum. She should have actually had a little more than that. She gets so much double team pressure when she gets the ball. It was hard for her to square her shoulders enough to even have a good percentage shot."

While Downs said the Warriors focused most of their attention on Abela and Mitchell coming into the game, Clemen-Holbrook was happy to see her team come out with a well-rounded effort. Eight Tigers finished the game with points.

Abela led the Tigers with 17 points, but she was complimented by Michaela Lievi's 17 pts, Mitchell's 10 pts, Kate Holleran's 8 pts and Meghan Hurley's 4 pts.

Lievi and Holleran also played a significant role on the defensive side of the ball.

"[Lievi] did a great job with the offensive rebounding tonight," Clement-Holbrook said. "I thought Holleran played really balanced 'D.' She does a great job defensively and offensively she handles the pressure very well."

"We’re trying to get a rotation going so some of these kids get some minutes and we’re all really comfortable."

The Tigers will take their first road trip Friday when they travel to Canton for a 6:30 p.m. game.