Prout Stops Mt. Hope on Senior Night and Goes on to Postseason

WAKEFIELD – Playing at home in front of an appreciative Senior Night crowd, the Prout School varsity boys closed out the regular season on Monday with a win over the visiting Mt. Hope Huskies 62-51.

"I was just happy to get out of here with a win," Prout head coach Eric Simonelli said after the game. "It is tough to play a team back-to-back."

"I knew we would have to play pretty much a perfect game to beat them here," Mt. Hope coach Mike Topazio said. "We didn't come too close to playing a perfect game, but I was very satisfied with the effort. We worked hard."

The Huskies' high scorer was the diminutive Mike Head, who had 15 points. Ben Francis added 13 points in Mt. Hope's losing effort.

The Crusaders were once again led by their co-captains. John King was game high-scorer with 21 points, while fellow senior Ben Thompson contributed 12.

"It's tough when you're facing a two-headed monster," Topazio said, referring to Prout's one-two punch of King and Thompson. "They are a good basketball team."

When he commented on the performance of his two tall co-captains, Simonelli's focus was clearly on the postseason.

"If we are going to win a championship, those two guys [King and Thompson] have get to be playing at a real high level," Simonelli said. "We need [sophomore] Eric [Rameika] and Justin [Bristol] to be in that mix as well."

Simonelli wryly added, "This is the first time since two weeks into the season that we are healthy.”

Tournament Time

There are 15 teams in Division III. However, the tournament for Division III has a field of just 10 teams.

As of Thursday, the final Division III standings for the top 10 teams (as per RIIL) were as follows:

Division III

   Overall  

(1)  Johnston

17

1

20

3

(2)  Sanchez

17

1

19

3

(3)  East Greenwich

15

3

15

6

(4)  Prout

14

4

17

6

(5)  Warwick Vets

11

7

13

8

(6) North Smithfield

10

8

10

12

(7)  Toll Gate

9

9

9

15

(8)  EWG

9

9

11

10

(9)  Middletown

7

11

7

14

(10) Burrillville

7

11

8

16

The five Division III teams in positions 11 through 15 are Moses Brown, Mt. Hope, Mount St. Charles, Fatima and Davies. Moses Brown had tied for 10th place, but lost the special play-in game to Burrillville Thursday night, 54-42.

Quarterfinals

On Tuesday, Prout will host a Division III quarterfinal match with the Hurricanes of Warwick Veterans High School.

Vets’ head coach Chris LeBlanc has had his team taking a run-and-gun approach to offense this season. On defense, the 'Canes like to mix-up man-to-man and 2-3 zone looks, and when they press, they pick up full court.

The force behind the Hurricanes is a bevy of seniors, including Cory Muto (16 points per game), Mark Flynn (10), and Patrick Kane (7).  

"They have a lot of seniors, and they have 11 wins.  They are really, really scrappy," Simonelli said when asked Monday about the Warwick Vets team. "They are not tall, but they have the ability to really get going from the outside. They are averaging seven or eight 3s per game right now."

LeBlanc, who on Monday had journeyed to South County to take in the Crusaders' last regular season game, had good things to say about his upcoming opponent, but was confident regarding his own team's chances, too.

"Prout is an excellent team, there is no doubt about it," LeBlanc said. "What makes Prout so good is that they are deep. We have some depth, too. We probably go about eight-deep, we have a lot of guys that can shoot the ball.  We like to shoot the ball, that's what we do. Shoot, and run and up down the floor."

Warwick will enter the Prout gym with a three-game winning streak, courtesy of wins over No. 15 Fatima, No. 14 Mount St. Charles and No. 11 Moses Brown.

For their part, the Crusaders this season have a 10-0 record when playing in the familiar environs of the Prout gym.

Tip-off Tuesday is 6:30 p.m. in Wakefield. Get there early, as the place will be packed.

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