Red Raiders Pull Out Big Win Over Taunton

High school basketball games don't get much more exciting than this.

Or harrowing.

Stepping onto the West Main Street parquet for their first Old Colony League match-up, the Barnstable High Red Raiders (7-2) pulled down a huge, 58-57 victory over the visiting Taunton High School Tigers (6-3) in front of a modest but boisterous crowd last night.

Senior captain Charlie Rice recorded just his second double-double of the season, but it could not have come at a better time, as the tall man beneath the glass notched 20 points and pulled down 15 rebounds in a gutsy effort. Rice went 6-7 from the foul line and 7-15 from the floor.

Fellow big man beneath the boards, junior Nick Peabody, was no slouch either. Peabody netted 13 points and pulled down 8 rebounds in a yeoman's effort beneath the glass.

Then, there was the defensive effort of junior point guard Jake Kipnes.

"Jake played a great floor game for us," head coach Gerry McDowell said. "The combination of Charlie Rice's 15 rebounds and Nick's eight rebounds with Jake's 11 assists... we held them."

Indeed, but it was not quite as easy as it may have appeared.

Barnstable seemed in command in the early going, staging a 17-12 lead in the first quarter, thanks in large part to Peabody's second-buzzer beating trey of the season. Much credit was due to Barnstable's "in your face" defense, but Taunton did not miss too many of its shots, particularly from Shaq Davis who ended the night with 20 points.

By the end of the first half, Barnstable had staged a 39-32 lead, but in what McDowell called "a bad third quarter," Barnstable watched its lead evaporate on a combination of poor floor shooting and a sort of laissez-faire defense that enabled Taunton to take a 48-47 lead.

Taunton would expand that lead in the fourth to as high as six points but with 3:42 starting guard Everett Walsh came in and upped the ante with an exhaustive defensive effort combined with 7 of his 9 points on the night in the game's final two minutes. With the score 57-56 and 30.4 seconds left on the clock, Walsh went 1-2 from the free throw line to make it 58-56. 

Taunton's Davis took a foul and went to the line and hit his first shot, but with 14 seconds left, McDowell called a key time out to throw a wrench into Taunton's momentum and the strategy paid off. Davis missed his second free throw, Rice boxed out his Taunton defender on the rebound and time elapsed on the Tigers' hopes.

Jason Eddy also played well for the Red & White and Justin Alvaran had 5 points, Travis Kendrew had four points to go along with Kipnes' five.

Barnstable takes on Bridgewater-Raynham on Friday night at home in the Red Raiders' second OCL tilt.  A large crowd is expected as the defending OCL Champions make a bid to repeat as league champs.