Girls Basketball: Thunderbolts Come Back Late, Beat Falcons

The Cranston East Thunderbolts battled all game long and staged a late-game comeback to beat their intracity rival, the Cranston West Falcons, 53-52 in a stunner on Saturday afternoon.

The Falcons led for the majority of the game, but the Bolts refused to give up.

Kelsy Evje’s three point play three minutes into the game gave the Bolts a 7-6 lead.

The teams traded baskets with neither team able to seize control of the game or open up a big lead.

Cranston East sophomore Jamienata Lamin’s layup with about five minutes left in the first half trimmed the deficit to 21-20.

Over the next four minutes, Cranston West went on a 8-0 run. Sophomore Courtney Lambrese had two consecutive offensive rebounds and layups closing out the drive. At halftime, the Falcons led 29-23.

Cranston East picked up their defensive intensity early in the second half and slowly chipped away at the lead. Evje’s layup with about 11 minutes left in the game cut their deficit to 36-33.

Later in the half, Cranston West began to pour it in offensively and limit East’s points. But they were unable to blow the game open and take a double digit lead.

“We had a chance to put them away and we didn’t,” Falcons coach, Marty Crowley, said.

Lambrese’s offensive rebound and layup with 4:20 left in the game extended West’s lead to 48-39.

Over the next four minutes, Cranston East went on a 14-2 run. Sophomore Emely Ramirez was clutch down the stretch. She scored the final seven points in the scoring streak, as she aggressively attacked the basket, scoring six points in the paint.

“Emely took over offensively for herself and took over by making the correct pass,” Rich Glover, East’s head coach, said.

Lambrese hit a clutch jumper from the right elbow to bring West to within a point, at 53-52, with 14-and-a-half seconds left in the game.

The Thunderbolts were unable to inbound the ball and were called for a five second violation.

Cranston West would have one final possession with a chance to knock down a buzzer beater and win the game. It was not meant to be and the Bolts held on for the 53-52 victory.

Ailis Hanley led the Falcons with 12 points and Lambrese chipped in ten points. Ramirez led all scorers with 24 points and Rodrigues added 13 points.

 “I thought we played great and shared the ball well,” Glover added, “We are starting to get a little more comfortable with the motion offense.”

Crowley was disappointed with his team’s defense at the end of the game. “Our help-side defense was not very good and our rotations were slow down the stretch,” he said.