Tigers Tip Townies on Late Hoop

No cause for alarm.

Jordan Hancock threw in a floater from the lane with one second remaining Thursday night to lift the Tiverton High boys’ basketball team to a thrilling 40-38 non-league victory over Division 1 East Providence High in an Injury Fund game played in Tiverton.

Alex Rosa scored a game-high 16 points and Geoff McNally added 9 points as the host Tigers rallied from a five-point halftime deficit and pulled it out at the buzzer in dramatic fashion. Jawaan Lyles netted 15 points for the Townies, including 10 of their 13 points in the second half.

In a 32-minute display of offensive futility, both teams executed well offensively in their opening performances of the 2011-12 season, but were frigid from the field and missed a year’s worth of easy shots in the contest. To their credit, both clubs produced solid defensive efforts, but were probably not as impressive as they appeared because of their shooting woes.

Nevertheless, the game was tightly contested (neither squad led by more than six points) and exciting to the end. Tiverton erased a 34-30 deficit with 7:47 remaining with a 6-0 run which consumed 3:36, but Lyles evened the count at 36-36 with 3:16 left on a steal and lay-in. McNally’s bucket off an out-of-bounds play put the Tigers ahead by a 38-36 margin at the 2:52 mark, but Lyles adroitly blocked a shot, scooped up the carom on the fly and scored an unmolested layup to forge a 38-38 stalemate with 1:37 to play.

After both teams misfired on scoring opportunities, Rosa was fouled attempting a three-point field goal with 26 ticks to go, but missed all three free throws. EP rebounded and worked the ball to Lyles, whose three-pointer with 10 seconds to play bounced off the rim and was corralled by the Tigers.

Tiverton opted to forego a timeout and Hancock ended up with possession on the left wing, dribbled twice into the lane and released a runner which nestled into the net just before the final buzzer sounded, eliciting a roar of approval from the partisan Tiger crowd.

Tiverton and East Providence both suffered serious graduation losses in June, so the two coaches approached Thursday’s game with different philosophies. While Tiverton’s Jerry Arcouette played his starting group for most of the contest, EP’s Alex Butler said he considered the outing to be just a “glorified scrimmage.”

“Tempo-wise, I thought we played how we wanted to play, but execution-wise, we still have a long way to go,” Arcouette said. “I was pleased that at key points in the game, especially when we fell behind, we kept our composure, and we made some good adjustments defensively in the second half. For the confidence of our players, this was a really important win for us.”

“We have only two players who have considerable varsity experience and it’s still so early in the season, so we played everyone on our roster (14 players) tonight and we’re not worried about the final score,” Butler said. “I thought we competed well and defended well. More importantly, I learned a lot of about some of our players tonight.”

Tiverton assumed first-half leads of 6-2 and 12-6 and was still on top by an 18-15 tally with 3:32 remaining when the Townies countered with a 10-2 burst ending the period and took a 25-20 edge into the locker room. Justin Andrade, John Vaughn and Dominic Leonardo all swished treys for EP during that stretch, but the guests netted just one in the second half (by Jashaun Bennett) as the Tigers extended their zone defense into the corners and pressured EP’s perimeter shooters.

East Providence exhibited an abundance of speed, quickness, depth and long-range shooting ability Thursday night behind Lyles, Bennett, Leonardo, Andrade, Vaughn, Nick DeBarros, John Resendes, Alex Hurley, Brendan Quigley and Victor Adewusi. Providing additional firepower will be Adeyanju Adewusi, Mathias McGonigle, Edwin Sam and Jalin Braxton.

“Offensively, I thought our ball movement and dribble-penetration were both good tonight, but we just didn’t make shots,” Butler said. “Defensively, we still have some work to do and our rebounding has to be better, but overall, I’m encouraged by our performance.”

Butler said he thinks the Townies can be a sleeper in this winter’s race for top laurels in Division 1.

“We’re looking to compete every night and to be in contention for one of the 32 spots in the State Tournament,” he said. “If we can make shots, I think we’ll be there.”

East Providence makes its official regular-season debut next Tuesday night at home against Barrington High in a non-league clash.

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