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Sports

NK Girls Hoops Season Ends With Loss To East Providence

"It just seemed like there was no flow to the game, there was a foul every possession, every time down foul, foul, foul. We couldn't get into a flow," North Kingstown head coach Bob Simeone said.

Seniors Jackie DeCristoforo, Julia Smiley, Kelsey Desanctis and Soyria Giraud have enjoyed a great deal of success as members of the North Kingstown High girls’ basketball program over the past four years. Unfortunately for the four they played the last game of their high school careers Friday night at A. Lenore Cranston Gymnasium, a place where they have put in tireless hours of work.

“We didn’t think it was going to happen,” Desanctis said.  “We played as hard as we can, but this loss was really hard for us. We all, especially the seniors, grew up playing together.”

In an erratic game Wednesday night the Skippers lost its preliminary round playoff game to East Providence High 61-50 at North Kingstown High School, effectively ending their season.

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“We knew they were a scrappy team, we played them in the injury fund game at the beginning of the year, so we knew they were a good team,” North Kingstown head coach Bob Simeone said. “It just seemed like there was no flow to the game, there was a foul every possession, every time down foul, foul, foul. We couldn’t get into a flow.”

This lack of continuity was due in large part to the high number of free throws attempted in the second half, a number that was significantly in favor of the Townies.

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“It was a very sloppy game on our part, but in the second half we really came together and made shots that mattered,” East Providence senior Michaela Wiggins said. “Free throws were a big key for us tonight. A major part of our game plan was to attack the basket every possession that we got.”

After only attempting five free throws in the first half, East Providence knocked down 21 of its 33 free throw attempts in the second frame. The Skippers only attempted 15 foul shots in the entire game.

“The first time we played them in that injury fund game we shots 13-of-30,” East Providence head coach Michael Solitro said. “Our whole game plan coming in was obviously we knew that we wanted to attack their man-to-man.”

This erratic, foul-heavy pace played completely in the favor of the Townies, as North Kingstown is a team that, when successful, has relied on discipline and execution at both ends of the floor.

“Their coach does an excellent job with running offensive stuff. They’re really discipline offensively, so we knew we kind of had to switch our defenses a bit,” Solitro said.  “A team like that you have to keep off balance. Smiley is too good of a shooter to let get into any kind of a rhythm."

As a result of being thrown out of their comfort zone, the Skippers struggled to make shots and rimmed out a large number of layups.

“They seemed to stop our transition. I mean there was a time where we missed a bunch of layups and you can’t miss layups late in the game,” Simeone said. “They were one step ahead of us at every rebound, every loose ball and as they say you can take a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink.”

After the two teams played to a 12-12 tie in the early going, the Townies went on a 9-0 run to open up a 21-14 lead with just over three minutes remaining in the first half.

“We got off to an okay start and then at the end of the first half we kind of lost it and we were throwing the ball away,” Desanctis said. “We played good on defense, but we just couldn’t hit the shots. It just wasn’t falling for us.”

North Kingstown was able to cut into the lead to trail by just four points at halftime, but the Skippers were unable to make it a one possession game for the remainder of the contest.

The Skippers best chance to get back in the game came after a basket from sophomore Maddie Ferranti cut the deficit to 45-41 with 4:35 remaining, but the Townies bounced back to end the game on a 16-9 run to take the double-digit victory.

“We buckled down. We knew that’s what it was going to come down to. It was going to be a chippy game and did what we had to come out on top,” Wiggins said.

East Providence will advance to the quarterfinals of the Division-I playoffs where they will battle Barrington High on Saturday at 8 p.m. at Rhode Island College.

For North Kingstown, it was the conclusion of a very much up-and-down season in which the Skippers lost six of their last 11 games after winning nine of its first 11 by double figures.

“I think we took a lot of teams lightly,” Simeone said. “You beat teams by 25 to 30 and then you lose to them by 20. It’s one of those things that you try to motivate and you can’t get it to move.”

After the Skippers started the year thinking their season would likely end at the Ryan Center, it ended as it began with a loss to East Providence.

“There was no stopping us at the beginning of the season. We were all working so well together,” Desanctis said. “We lost what we were doing [at the end of the year]. We had meetings and tried to get it back together, but we were all kind of not playing the roles that we were given at the beginning of the season. It’s so disappointing because we played so well together and we knew that we could have done it.”

Despite losing a lot of talent with this year’s senior class, the Skippers should be right there in the thick of things again next year given the contributions they got this season from their sophomores and juniors.

“The juniors are special, the sophomores are very special and they’re a great group of kids,” Simeone said. “Everybody talks about well you have to rebuild. I don’t think it’s rebuild, it’s just reload and go from there. We’re going to miss those kids, don’t get me wrong, but we’ll be good.”

 

GIRLS BASKETBALL

East Providence 61, North Kingstown 50

EAST PROVIDENCE (61): M. Wiggins 6 4-5 16, Connor 3 3-7 10, Dias 3 10-12 16, Monagle 2 0-2 5, Blaydes 1 0-2 2, T. Wiggins 3 6-8 12; totals 18 22-38 61.

NORTH KINGSTOWN (50): Smiley 6 4-5 19, Carville 3 1-1 7, Giraud 2 1-4 5, Desanctis 2 0-0 5, Ferranti 2 1-2 6, Decristoforo 0 2-2 2, Wietman 3 0-0 6; totals 18 9-14 50.

Halftime: EP 28-24.  3-pointers: EP 2 (Monagle, Connor); NK 5 (Smiley 3, Desanctis, Ferranti).  Fouled out: NK, Giraud, DeCristoforo.

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