By Nick Friend, Post Intern

EAST PROVIDENCE — The East Providence High School boys’ basketball team hosted its annual holiday tournament earlier this week in Ramos Gymnasium, winning both of its outings and improving to 5-1 overall to date.

The Townies easily dispatched Toll Gate in their opener Monday night, Dec. 28, by a 71-23 score. The next evening, Dec. 29, East Providence had a bit of a tussle with North Providence before earning the 86-75 victory.

The Division I Townies got their back-to-back games started with the one-sided win against Division III Toll Gate.

“We came out and did what I think we’re supposed to do,” EPHS head coach Alex Butler said after the game. “Toll Gate is not a team that is at our level of play.”

E.P. jumped out to a fast 16-0 start thanks to three early steals as all five of their starters got on the board.

“I think right from the get go we stepped up on them and once we got the lead I think they just rolled over a little bit,” Coach Butler said.

Just when Toll Gate’s offense started to find some rhythm, starting point guard Jarron Santos nailed three straight three pointers to give his team a commanding 27-5 lead.

The Townies continued to dominate in the last four minutes of the first half as they went on a 8-2 run. During the streak Zecaree Veiga scored six of the points before the Townies went into the half up 42-7.

“The first half we had ten forced turnovers which probably led to about seven layups for us. We also had 11 assists and 10 offensive rebounds,” Coach Butler said. “The assists are huge because we have been preaching ball movement.”

To begin the second half, E.P. didn’t let up as they would go on a 13-3 run led by four points a piece from Marcus McCarthy and Santos.

The Townies were led offensively by their two senior standouts Santos, who finished with 14 points, and Veiga, who had 12.

Tuesday night’s game against North Providence was much closer, but E.P. was able to hang on down the stretch behind Veiga’s game-best 27 to earn the 11-point victory.

“This is a game that as hard as it was and as hard as we made it, we still won,” Coach Butler said. “It is a game we pulled out and is something that we can build for some confidence going forward.”

E.P. started fast against the Cougars as Veiga scored four points and  McCarthy grabbed a couple of rebounds, the locals earned a 7-3 lead.

North Providence would come fighting back to take a 10-9 lead with under 10 minutes to play in the half on an easy two pointer from the top of the key.

The Townies, though, used their motion offense over the next few minutes to regain the edge. Tommy Lopes assisted on Veiga’s on a corner 3 to put the Townies up 22-16 with under eight minutes to go. E.P. would maintain its lead the rest of the half, eventually taking a 39-32 to intermission.

The Townies started off slow in the second half as North Providence opened on a 6-1 run. Two made free throws from Lopes and a shot from Veiga stopped the run as E.P. held a slim 44-43 lead with under 13 minutes to play.

The two teams would exchange blows in a tight back-and-forth game for the next several minutes as North Providence continued to find holes in E.P’s defense. Offensively, Veiga kept his team in it, scoring six more points which gave his team a 54-48 lead halfway through the second half.

E.P. then found themselves down by one with just under seven minutes to go when McCarthy got a flouter to go and a free throw that put his team back on top 58-57.

The Townies defense then stepped up and made several stops as McCarthy kicked it out to Duarte for a good basket which grew their teams’ lead to 64-59.

The Cougars, however, would not go away, fighting back to shrink E.P’s lead to 74-68 with just under two minutes to play. But Santos, who struggled for a large part of the second half, then hit a pivotal jump back shoot which put his team up 78-70.

Veiga grabbed 12 rebounds to go along with his night-high points total while Santos added 19 points and had five assists.

“I just said it to him (Veiga) in the lock room, it was good to see him that way,” Coach Butler said. “He struggled mightily through he early part of the season. It was good to see him be aggressive. He had a great game offensively and defensively.”

E.P. will play two of the better teams in Division I next week when the Townies return to league action with matchups against Classical and Mt. Pleasant.

“We come back against the iron of the league,” Coach Butler said with an eye towards next week. “Two tough games and our confidence has to stay high in order for us to go and win those ball games.”

Photos by Tim Marshall