LOWELL — They were expected to be back at the Tsongas Center for state championship weekend when the season began. On Saturday, Foxboro completed its march into the record books.
Camryn Collins completed her career in Warriors colors with a game-high 25 points as Foxboro simply overwhelmed Norwell, 66-43, to win the Div. 3 title and its second in a row after winning in Div. 2 last season.
“These girls were just amazing,” Foxboro coach Lisa Downs said. “They had to be all year with everyone circling them on the calendar and giving them their best game.”
The Warriors (24-2) never trailed on Saturday as they devastated the Clippers (23-2) with runs of 15-0, 10-2, 9-0 and 11-2 en route to leading by as much as 25.
“It’s rare for something like this to happen,” Collins said. “It was a hard road the last two years and I’m so happy we could get back and come out on top.”
Foxboro held the Clippers without a field goal in the first quarter as they built a 17-2 lead on the back of 12 combined points from Collins and Addie Ruter, who was a constant pain for the Clippers in the paint en route to 17 points.
They kept the pressure on in the second quarter and built the lead to 29-9 when Norwell called timeout to try and stop the bleeding.
The move was a good one as the Clippers suddenly came alive offensively. Heidi Warren, Maddie Oliver (17 points, which saw her reach the 1,000 mark for her career) and Reagan Dowd all hit threes as a part of an 11-0 run in the final 80 seconds that cut the gap to 31-22 at the break.
If the Warriors were rattled, it sure didn’t show as they came out and blitzed Norwell to begin the third. Collins and Kailey Sullivan (15 points) accounted for a 9-0 run that pushed the lead back to 18.
This time Norwell couldn’t come up with a response. The Clippers got as close as 13 late in the third but from there on, it was all Foxboro.
Collins took over in the fourth, scoring nine straight and 11 in all as the Warriors blew the game open.
“I kept calling plays for Cam because I could see she was going to score. She just had that look,” Downs said.
All that was left from there was for the Warriors starters to get their curtain call, which came with just under two minutes to go.
“We just kept getting better as the year went on and better as the post season went on. I’m so proud of them,” Downs said.
