The dominating, 82-41 victory by the East Providence High School over Central High in last week's preliminary round of the 2024 Division I boys' basketball championship tournament propelled the Townies into the main draw of the event and a date against fourth-seeded Hendricken in Warwick on Tuesday night, Feb. 27. Tip off is set for 6 p.m.

The fifth-seeded Townies and fourth-seeded Hendricken, winners over 13th-seeded Westerly in its prelim on Friday night, Feb. 23, met once during the regular season and also in the Hawks' Warwick home where the hosts defeated the locals 75-70 back on January 18.

"Hendricken is going to be tough there. It's their home gym. They play well there. They'll be prepped for us, but if we play the way we play we'll have a chance," EPHS head coach Joe Andrade said of the encounter with the Hawks. "I think they'll be mad that they let up that many points to us the first time. They pride themselves on defense, so they'll try to trim that down."

Back in mid-January, the Townies gave the host Hawks all they could handle before falling by the five-point margin.

Hendricken didn't trail the rest of the way after scoring the last five points of the second quarter to take a 34-32 lead at intermission. The Hawks then used some sharp shooting from behind the 3-point arc in the third quarter, draining five triples to open up a 54-49 edge heading into the final period.

The Townies would get no closer than three, 63-60, just past the midway mark of the fourth on an old-fashioned three-point play by Levi Jacobs.

The Hawks, however, answered with two quick buckets in transition to retake a more comfortable advantage.

East Providence crawled back to with four three more times: once on a Franklin Carela Lopez triple, the next on a Jacobs layup and the last, 74-70, on a Tyler Gomez trey with around 20 seconds to go.

But the Townies later couldn't convert their last best chance out of a time-out with about 6 seconds left. A look from 3 rolled around the rim and off. The Hawks then padded their final margin with one more free throw.

"I thought we played well, well enough to win, but we gave up a lot of second-chance baskets and they just made more shots," Andrade said at the time.

"Going down there to play them is always tough. They're disciplined. They don't make too many mistakes, especially at home," he continued. "I thought we attacked their zone well. They bank on getting you down five then the next thing you know it's 15, then 25 and it's over. But that never happened. We never gave up."

Christian Torres led the balanced attack for the Townies with 13 points. Alex Mulamba had 12 off the bench. Kenaz Ochgwu had 10 in one of his quieter outings of late. Jacobs and Derrell Liggins (three 3s) also had nine each as subs. Gomez chipped in eight, Lopez six and Brandyn Van Wagner three.