Townies have playoff hopes despite losses to LaSalle and Hendricken

Story and photos by Richard W. Dionne, Jr.
Posted 2/4/25

The East Providence basketball team has playoff hopes, despite recent loses to undefeated Lasalle 75-58 in a Division 1 home game on Friday night and to  Bishop Hendricken 62-50 on Wednesday. …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Townies have playoff hopes despite losses to LaSalle and Hendricken

Posted

The East Providence basketball team has playoff hopes, despite recent loses to undefeated Lasalle 75-58 in a Division 1 home game on Friday night and to  Bishop Hendricken 62-50 on Wednesday. The losses dropped the Townies record to 7-7 with five games left in the regular season. 

Junior guard Jaydason Barros scored 16 points to lead East Providence in the loss. Alex Mulamba scored 14 points, Antonia Varela scored 6, Tyler Gomez, Jervon Brown, Franklin Lopez, Braedon Ellis, each scored 3 and Jacob Stover and Wesley Snead each scored 2.

We settled for threes. We don't move the ball and the team sensed that it was going to be a tough match,” said Townies’ head coach Joe Andrade. “They're (LaSalle) undefeated for a reason. But we didn’t really work the basketball. We've been struggling with that all year.”

 

Lopez, a senior guard, pulled down a team high, 9 rebounds for the Townies during the LaSalle game.  He’s not tall, but he can out jump most of the big men that he has to guard and is consistently the hardest worker on the court. He is also a skilled passer and can at times shoot from outside and drive the lane and get to the hoop. But that was difficult against LaSalle’s big man, Liam Simpson, who also played terrific defense for the Rams and had 14 points.

“Franklin normally defends our opponent’s best player and most of the time they are bigger and taller than him,” said Coach Andrade. “But he works 110 percent every night, brings down a bunch of rebounds and leaves everything on the floor.”

With Lopez, Mulamba, Gomez, Brown, Barros and Ellis, the Townies have some of the most athletically talented players in the league, but winning is difficult when the ball is falling through the hoop.

“When we move the ball and actually run a play, we score,” Coach Andrade said. “It's up and down. I mean, we struggle to score. We go through droughts. Defensively it's been better, but it's really a struggle.”

Work cut out to make the playoffs

With just five games left in the regular season, the Townies have their work cut out for them, if they want to make the postseason. They have three tough games against Portsmouth, Tolman and Barrington before playing cupcakes Johnston and Narragansett to end the regular season.

 

2025 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.