Sports Brief: Lady Panthers Advance In D-II Playoffs

The Lady Panthers varsity basketball team advanced to the Final Four in the Division-II girls' basketball tournament on March 6 with a 53-46 victory over West Warwick. awaits the winner of the Cranston High School East-Prout match-up, which was in progress when this article was published.

Held at Rhode Island College, the game featured tough defense and a back-and-forth battle, with each team putting together rallies before the Lady Panthers took the lead for good late in the game.

Johnston senior Samantha Maner converted a three-point play to make the score 11-8 with 9:52 left in the first half. The Lady Wizards answered with a rally of their own, eventually taking a 19-14 lead with just under six minutes left.

After Maner tied the score at 22 with 1:54 remaining in the first stanza, senior Victoria St. Angelo drilled a three-pointer and added another two in response to West Warwick's trey as the final seconds ticked off the first-half clock.

At the half, Johnston led 27-25, with St. Angelo leading Johnston scorers with  seven points. Maner and senior Alaina DeNoncour chipped in four apiece. West Warwick's Tyreese Garrick tallied nine points in the first half, with Mackenzie Ramsey adding six for the Lady Wizards.

Johnston senior captain Megan Macera posted a two-pointer to start a 10-4 run in the second half. Following DeNoncour's fourth foul with 9:58 left, the Lady Wizards took advantage of her absence underneath to chase down and tie Johnston, 43-43, with 5:17 to go.

DeNoncour returned just after the Lady Wizards drew even, and she and senior captain Gianna Mazzulla teamed up to open a six-point lead with about 2:30 to play, 49-43.

West Warwick took a stop-the-clock stance in the waning minutes and fouled the Lady Panthers; it proved their undoing, though, as Mazzulla and Macera hit key free throws to preserve the lead.

Mazzulla and St. Angelo finished the game with 10 apeice for the Lady Panthers; DeNoncour added nine. For West Warwick, Garrick led the team with 21 points and Ramsey had 12.

Watch for a full re-cap of this game tomorrow at 10 a.m. on JohnstonPatch.