Photos: Wheeler beats East Providence in key D-II girls' hoops showdown

Rumford's Metcalf leads Warriors to win with season-best 32

By Mike Rego
Posted 2/10/18

SEEKONK — The Wheeler School girls’ basketball team handed visiting East Providence its worst league loss to date in the penultimate Division II game of the regular season for the Townies, the …

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Photos: Wheeler beats East Providence in key D-II girls' hoops showdown

Rumford's Metcalf leads Warriors to win with season-best 32

Posted

SEEKONK — The Wheeler School girls’ basketball team handed visiting East Providence its worst league loss to date in the penultimate Division II game of the regular season for both sides, the host Warriors beating the Townies by the score of 69-40 at Wheeler’s home Van Norman Field House Friday night, Feb. 9.

A would-be “Townie” played a large role in Wheeler’s victory. City resident and Warriors’ senior standout Anna Metcalf poured in a season-best 32 points to lead the Warriors, who improved to 14-3 in the II-North standings with the win. Courtney Dorr was the lone Townie in double figures with 16 as East Providence dropped to 14-3 in the II-North ranks.

“We just got beat by a better team. They were well prepared. We couldn’t solve their 3-2 trapping defense. We tried to make adjustments, but we just didn’t execute. We didn’t execute all night and we didn’t play defense,” said EPHS head coach Russ Ferri.

Missing two starters from the lineup, Wheeler still led 31-20 at intermission. After a brief spurt by E.P. out of the locker room, the Warriors gradually stretched their advantage. It rose past 20 (55-34) for the first time on a Metcalf layup with just eight minutes remaining in the contest. The margin reached a game-high 31 (69-38) with just over a minute to go on a layup by Kate Keenan (20 points).

“The girls came prepared. We were missing a couple of starters. We just worked together as a team. We thought, let’s drive. Let’s take them out of their game, which is usually ball-handling, and let’s switch up our defense. And it all came together,” said Wheeler head coach Stephanie Bissett.

By virtue of the win, the Warriors now hold the tiebreaker over the Townies for playoff positioning and a potential bye in the upcoming D-II championship tournament, something about the outcome of the game that did not go unnoticed.

“It was a lot of hard work and determination,” added Bissett of her team’s mindset entering Friday. “We knew that our seeding in the tournament mattered, and when they have something at stake they play for it.”

Friday’s game was a rematch of sorts. East Providence defeated Wheeler, 53-42, in the first round of last year’s Open State Tournament. The loss was the only one the Warriors suffered in their first Interscholastic League season, having won the Division III title last winter with a perfect 20-0 record.

Wheeler moved up to D-II this winter, and has pretty much picked up where it left off led by Metcalf, who the week prior became the program’s all-time career leading scorer, and Keenan, a freshman who is averaging a team-best 21.5 points per game this year.

The Warriors’ 1-2 punch was in form Friday. Both teams were a little loose with the ball against the others extended pressure early in the game. The score was last tied at four apiece before Wheeler began to take command. A Jackie Faulise 3-pointer from the top of the key made it 9-4 Warriors and caused the Townies to take a timeout.

But there was little East Providence could do to staunch the approaching onslaught. Wheeler was a step quicker all night, utilizing a 3-2 half-court trap more frequently than in previous games. The Warriors moved their feet better on defense and made the crisper decisions offensively as the half moved along.

Dorr did keep the Townies in a while, making all three free throws after being fouled an attempted trey then draining one from behind the arc to knot the score for the last time, 18-all, with just over three minutes to go in the first.

From there, however, it was all Wheeler. Metcalf sparked the Warriors on a 13-0 run as she and her mates grabbed control of the game. The run included one of three triples made by Metcalf, the senior headed to Union College in New York next fall.

“We made too many mistakes all night. And when we did make a run, our defense let us down,” said Ferri.

East Providence’s Lillian Conti brought the spree to an end by knocking a pair at the line with under a minute to go before the break. Those points were the only two the E.P. senior, averaging 12.2 ppg coming into the game, would score all evening. The half ended with the Warriors firmly in charge up 11.

Dorr again gave the Townies a glimmer of hope to start the second half, draining two more 3s to help cut their deficit to eight (34-26) a few minutes into the period. But that would just about it for the visitors. The Townies did have the ball with a chance to slice the lead to six, but couldn’t capitalize on a 2-on-1 situation and turned the ball over.

Wheeler went on another lengthy run right after, this time 13-2, to build a commanding 47-30 lead at the mid-point of the second. From there, the only thing left to be determined was how large would be the Warriors’ final margin of victory.

“Like I said, we just got beat by a better team tonight,” Ferri added. “And we just didn’t have any answers.”

Shaniah Hazard, like Conti held well below her 12 ppg average, finished with six points for the Townies as did Emma DaSilva. Hailey Hannon and Ashley Cassino-Henriquez chipped in four each. Faulise added 15 for the Warriors.

Both teams play their final regular season games next week. Wheeler hosts Prout Monday, Feb. 12, at 5:30 p.m. while East Providence is home for Westerly at 7 Tuesday night, Feb. 13.

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