Late Surge Lifts Islanders Over Tigers, 37-32

Better late than never.

The girls’ basketball team snapped out of an offensive funk during the final six minutes of action Friday night, erasing a seven-point deficit to defeat host Tiverton High, 37-32, in a non-league Injury Fund game.

Nina Traglia scored a game-high 14 points and Chelsea Dowler added 11 points – including five key free throws in the closing three minutes – as the Islanders (defending Division 3 state champions) rallied from a 30-23 disadvantage to shock the Division 2 Tigers.

After Tiverton’s Haley Higginbottom drained a three-pointer with 6:11 left and a foul shot with 5:57 remaining to push the hosts in front by the 30-23 margin, Middletown clamped down defensively, surrendered just two points the rest of the way and took the ball to the hole offensively, producing 14 free throw opportunities in that span and converting six.

“This is how we usually play; it usually takes us time to warm up,” said Middletown Coach Mike Yates. “I think the biggest thing was that we hit our foul shots at the end.”

Traglia banked in a pair of jump shots and swished a foul shot within a span of 1:23 to reduce the Islanders’ deficit to 30-28, and Dowler bottomed three of foul charity tosses to put the guests in front, 31-30, with 2:40 left. After Tiverton’s Samantha Sando (5 points) converted a put-back for a 32-31 edge with 2:21 to go, Middletown scored the final six points of the contest, as Dowler made two free throws sandwiched around interior baskets by Michaela Conley and Zoe Mazzulli.

Olivia Bergandy topped Tiverton with 8 points, and teammates Haley Higginbottom and Rachel Pimental both finished with 6 points, but Coach Ted Wise said he was not pleased with his squad’s performance.

“We have a lot of talent on this team, but I saw a lot of selfishness tonight and a lack of effort,” he said. “We need to come together and handle our business on the court.”

Until the concluding minutes, the contest was a ragged and sloppy affair, replete with an avalanche of mistakes, poor shot selection, frigid shooting from the floor, a slew of personal fouls and enough turnovers to keep a bakery in the black indefinitely. In the first half alone, the teams combined to miss 15 of 16 free throws and finished the night with only 16 successes in 54 tries.

Defensively, both clubs played intensely and physically, generating numerous turnovers and generally forcing shots under duress.

Despite playing without injured forward Breanna Freeman, Middletown out-rebounded Tiverton and was more poised and aggressive coming down the stretch, likely owing to its title success of a year ago. Meanwhile, the Tigers (who performed without regulars Bianca DiPrato, Jackie Wilson and Emily Masse) struggled to sustain offensive consistency and cohesion as they did last winter when they captured just three Division 2 victories.

The teams swapped leads through the opening nine minutes of play until two Bergandy baskets keyed an 8-0 Tiverton spurt which created a 14-9 gap with 2:28 left prior to halftime. A three-pointer by Brittany Kivlehan and Elizabeth Durgan’s bank shot from the left wing narrowed the guests’ disadvantage to 15-14 at the break.

Middletown tallied the first five points of the second half to assume a 19-15 cushion, until the Tigers responded with another 8-0 burst to enjoy a 23-19 edge, as Bergandy accounted for four points and Pimental for three points. Tiverton gradually stretched its lead to seven points before the Islanders rallied.

“I thought we played great man-to-man defense tonight and helped out well,” Yates said. “We also cut down on our turnovers in the second half.”

Middletown will heavily rely this season on Traglia, Dowler and Freeman along with Conley, Kivlehan, Durgan, Mazzulli and Glenn Murphy. Providing help off the bench will be Alysandra Bourque, Rachel DeBerardinis, Quanisha Hilson, Victoria Riege, Zoe Simanski and Elizabeth Wauters.

“To be successful this year, we’ll have to play well, shoot the ball well and avoid injuries,” Yates said, adding that the Islanders have every intention of defending their state title.

“The girls want to go back to the Ryan Center (on the campus of the University of Rhode Island and site of the state championship game) this year,” he said. “They had so much fun there last year that they want to get back there.”

Middletown will commence its Division 3 regular-season schedule next Friday at home against Block Island School.

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