Shaking off a little spring baseball in a rusty season opening 27-21 loss to Franklin, the Attleboro boys rising 5th Grade division 1 basketball team turned it up several notches for the rest of the summer to capture the league championship this past weekend while finishing 9-1.

After the first loss, the team went on a tear, defeating its opponents by an average of more than 21 points per game while scoring 44 PPG. They also  avenged its only defeat to Franklin by beating them by 25 later in the season.   The team used a combination of aggressive man to man defense, transition offense, and its trademark motion half-court offense to overwhelm opponents.   It was not uncommon for this team to have all 10 players score in each game.

In the semifinals, Attleboro faced 8-1 Taunton, which coasted through D2 and was bumped up to the D1 tournament.  Taunton proved no match for Big Blue as they put it away early and often to cruise to a 41-13 victory.   In the finals, the team faced second seed Westwood for the third time this season, beating them by an average of 20 points in the first two meetings.   Westwood was ready in the finals, however, and Attleboro entered perhaps a little overconfident as Westwood jumped to an early 9-1 lead.  The champs regained composure to retake the lead by halftime, then battled through the remainder of the game with big shots by a number of players to eventually win in OT 32-30.

The team roster consisted of Ethan Viveiros, Tyler Dunlea, Dante Monestime, Jake Reilly, Hayden Crowley, Brady Rosen, Elijah Sye, Jacob Bettencourt, Brady Erwin, and Connor Houle.  

Combined with their strong Metrowest finish from last spring, this group has now won 17 of their last 19 games.  It was also Connor Houle’s last game with this group, who played up as a 3rd grader on last year’s team and will now go forward with the 4th grade Metrowest team in 2017-2018.  He will be missed as he was a great teammate and contributor to this team.

Overall the boys 5th grade D1 team continues to show great promise.  Congrats to the boys and coaching staff on a successful summer of basketball.