Kyree LaPlanche and Jeremiah King led the Bulldogs to a 64-63 win on Wednesday night.

HOLBROOK -- It was a memorable win for Holbrook High boys basketball coach Richard Gifford.

Gifford, who spent three decades at Avon, beat his old club, 64-63, on Wednesday night in a Mayflower Comprehensive nail-biter.

“I coached at Avon for 30 years, I won four state championships (1995, 1997, 1998, 1999), six South Sectionals and 12 league championships,” Gifford said. “I was the (athletic director) there, I hung a whole bunch of banners in a whole bunch of different sports.”

 The host Bulldogs were led by their strong backcourt tandem of Kyree LaPlanche (26 points) and Jeremiah King (23 points). LaPlanche scored 11 of Holbrook’s first 13 points in the game.

 “(Kyree) hasn’t been shooting the ball well all year and tonight he shot the ball well,” Gifford noted. “… He hasn’t shot as well as he had in the sophomore/junior years, but tonight, big game, big players play in big games.”

 Said Avon coach Jay Donovan: “(Holbrook’s) backcourt is the best backcourt in the league. … A lot of it was in transition. Kyree got off in the first half and really the whole game, he leaked out and he got a bunch of easy buckets in transition and we weren’t getting back and it hurt us. It got them into a rhythm to start that game.”

 While Holbrook (6-3, 1-1) had strong play from its guards, Avon (8-2, 2-1) countered with its two big men in the post in Falilou Sakho (16 points) and Jacques Parent (game-high 27 points).

 “Falilou is an incredibly gifted offensive player; he’s got a soft touch,” Donovan said. “He’s incredibly hard to stop offensively because he can score in a lot of ways.”

 Trailing by as many as 64-53 in the fourth quarter, things looked bad for Avon when Sakho fouled out. However, it received a break when Holbrook big man Daniel Correia also fouled out, which left Parent feasting in the post.

 Parent scored seven straight points to fuel a 10-0 run to cut the deficit to 64-63.

“We were obviously looking to exploit the height difference,” Donovan said. “For my money, Jacques is the best big man in the league. He’s a double-double machine, he’s above 15 points and 15 rebounds in averages for the year. Jack’s an amazing presence, he’s a great leader, he calms everyone down, he’s the only senior we have.”

Avon had a chance to take a game-winning shot with 2.4 seconds left, but failed to take an attempt off an inbounds play under its own basket.

Even though Avon never led in the entire contest, it kept hanging around, as it only trailed 36-31 at halftime.