Bolts strike Townies from D-I boys' hoops tourney

Cranston East ends East Providence's stay with quarterfinal setback; Townies await possible Open Tourney bid

By Mathew Galvao
Posted 2/27/19

CRANSTON — The East Providence High School boys’ basketball team was eliminated from the Division I championship tournament Tuesday night, Feb. 26, after the Townies dropped a quarterfinal round …

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Bolts strike Townies from D-I boys' hoops tourney

Cranston East ends East Providence's stay with quarterfinal setback; Townies await possible Open Tourney bid

Posted

CRANSTON — The East Providence High School boys’ basketball team was eliminated from the Division I championship tournament Tuesday night, Feb. 26, after the Townies dropped a quarterfinal round matchup to second-seeded and host Cranston East by a 75-64 score.
After leading by 11 points at the half, East Providence allowed 44 points in the second half as Cranston East advanced to the tourney semifinals.
“They (Cranston East) are what they are. They’ve only lost three games for a reason,” explained East Providence head coach Joe Andrade. “I told them (East Providence) at halftime these kids are gonna come out and play and fight hard and that’s what happened.”
The Townies got off to a great start in this one as they took an early 15-10 lead over the Thunderbolts. East Proviedence’s junior forward Joshua Kauffman drained five 3-point shots in the game’s first half to help give the locals an 18-point (40-22) lead with two minutes remaining before the break.
But Cranston East stormed back with a 9-2 run to get within 11 points as the teams headed to the locker rooms for intermission.
“Besides Josh (Kauffman) we really didn’t play well in the first half. Dion (Hazard) was not feeling himself tonight. It’s not an excuse, but he didn’t play the way he should play,” Andrade said. “Without Josh what are we in the first half?”
The message at the half to East Providence by Andrade was a simple one, and that was Cranston East is a good team that takes a lot of pride in their game and that they were not going to be pushed around for a full 32 minutes.
“There’s too much pride over there for them to let that happen. We were here before and were up seven at halftime and we ended up losing,” said Andrade, referencing the Townies’ 70-63 loss to the Thunderbolts in Cranston during the regular season back on January 23.
Cranston East came out in the second half firing on all cylinders as the hosts went on an early 12-6 run to take a 49-48 lead. The Thunderbolts would then go on a 19-8 spurt and take a 68-56 lead with less than 2:30 to go in the game. East Providence would make a late push, but Cranston East maintained its edge to close out the 11-point win.
“They did to us exactly what we did to them in the first half. They hit three’s They are too good to go down like that,” explained Andrade. “I was trying to stop them and also get the ball to Josh (Kauffman) but also Dion (Hazard) too. Give Cranston East credit.”
Kauffman led the locals with a season and career-best 23 points. Mitchel Noresca added 13. Justin Pena had nine. Cranston East held Hazard, the Townies’ leading scorer during the season at just over 18 points per night, to just seven Tuesday. Nelvin Bianco paced the Bolts with a night-best 27. Andrew Khvang had 20 and Aireus Raspberry 15.
The Townies, seeded seventh in the tournament, finished Division I play with a 10-10 record in league contests, including a 71-52 rout of Classical in the first round Friday night, Feb. 22, in city. East Providence raced to a 41-14 lead at halftime. Hazard had a game-best 24 points for the locals and also grabbed 11 rebounds. Kauffman netted 12 on four 3-pointers.
“Tonight, it hurts. I’ll be honest with you. We’ve been successful the last three years,” Andrade said later Tuesday night. “We’ve been in the playoffs the last four years and in the open (tournament) two out of the last three years. Not many teams can say that.”
The Townies will now shift their focus on a potential berth in next week’s Open State Tournament where they will most likely find themselves in as a lower seed, possibly the 15th seed out of 16 teams, after the rest of the division playoffs conclude this weekend.
“We should sneak in as a 15th depending on what happens tonight,” said Andrade. “Let’s say they (Cranston East) gets to the finals and loses, we’re playing them again for the fourth time this year. You just never know.”

— East Providence Post and eastbayri.com contributing photographer Tyler Maxwell shot the accompanying gallery of photos.

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