Bolts Bounce Skippers From D-I Tourney

The North Kingstown boys basketball team was unable to rebound from a sluggish first half in its 58-47 loss to Cranston High School East in the first round of the Division-I Playoffs Friday.

“This is nuts, because our team is kind of young and we didn’t make playoffs last year, so this is the first time for a lot of us and we were really hyped up,” Cranston East junior Pat Marchand said. “We came out here and played as hard as we could and we knew we could win it with two halves of basketball.”

The loss eliminates the Skippers from the tournament and will have a little over two weeks off until the start of the Rhode Island State Tournament. 

“This is very disappointing,” North Kingstown head coach Aaron Thomas said. “I’ve never seen a team shoot this bad in any team that I’ve ever had.”

The Thunderbolts, who would have to win the D-I playoffs to get into the state tournament, advance to play Central High in the quarterfinals.

“We’re playing to try to qualify for the state tournament, so in our season we can’t have any more slip-ups,” Cranston East head coach Bill Coughlin said.

Against Cranston East, the Skippers were doomed by their poor shooting and offensive struggles in the early going, as the Bolts started the game on a 9-2 run before opening up a 25-10 lead with 4:29 remaining in the half.

“I think when you’re on the road you don’t want to fall behind early and they’re really good so you don’t want to fall down to a team of that caliber early on,” Coughlin said.

While North Kingstown struggled to put the ball in the basket, Cranston East was getting layups at the other end of the court, often the result from making the extra pass after some initial dribble penetration.

“At halftime I was furious with them. We didn’t come out to play and we let them drive to the hole,” Thomas said. “I don’t know if it’s just first playoff game jitters or what.”

While the Skippers nearly doubled their offensive output in the second half, they were unable to make up for the damage done in the first half. North Kingstown whittled the lead down six with 6:36 to go in the game, but was unable to get any closer.

“The big stat of the night is 2-for-21 from three-point land,” Thomas said. “If you’re going to shoot like that you’re not going to beat anyone.”

The Skippers were able to get back into the game thanks in large part to some poor freethrow shooting from Cranston East, who went 13-for-30 from the line in the second half after not attempting a free throw in the first.

“It would have been blow out,” Thomas said. “If they had hit any free throws that game would have been a 20-point game.”

Junior Rob Hazard and senior Derryck Kilgore led North Kingstown in scoring with 18 and 16 points, respectively, while junior Pat Marchand had a game-high 19 points for Cranston East.

The Bolts will look to further their quest to get into the state tournament on Monday at 7 p.m. when they take on Central in Providence in the quarterfinals of the D-I playoffs.

The Skippers, who already qualified for the state tournament by virtue of their record during the regular season, will take on Division-II Rogers High March 5 at the Providence Career and Technical Academy.

“We’re taking the weekend off and we’re coming back Monday with a new attitude,” Thomas said. “It’s a long resting period and then we know it’s Rogers. We know who we have right away.”

BOYS BASKETBALL

Cranston East 58, North Kingstown 47

CRANSTON EAST (58): Marchand 7 5-9 19, Bell 4 3-8 11, Kpahn4 1-2 10, Razzino 3 0-0 9, Boseman-Hinds 1 0-0 3, Franklin 0 2-8 2, Delgado 1 0-1 2, Bucci 0 2-2 2; totals 21 13-30 58.

NORTH KINGSTOWN (47): Hazard 8 1-3 18, Kilgore 6 4-5 16, M. Scott 2 0-0 5, E. Scott 2 0-2 4, Quainoo 1 0-0 2, Pratt 0 2-2 2.

Halftime: CE 25-16.  3-pointers: NK 2 (Hazard, M. Scott); CE 5 (Razzino 3, Boseman-Hinds, Kpahn).  Fouled out: none.