Prout Tops Mt. Hope on the Road Friday

BRISTOL – Playing in front of a Senior Night crowd at Mt. Hope High School, the Prout School varsity boys shot and rebounded their way to a convincing road win over the home team 58-35.

Prout never trailed in Friday’s game, extending a 12-point lead at halftime to 23 points by game's end to improve its divisional record to 13-4.

"This was a big game for us, we could still conceivably get into the playoffs," Mt. Hope head coach Mike Topazio said after the game. "I thought we played hard, the effort was definitely there, but their [Prout's] size hurt us, big time, I think it just wore us out. [John] King and [Ben] Thompson are just super players."

The two tall Prout co-captains combined offensively for 36 points, a total that exceeded the total scoring by all the members of the Mt. Hope team.    Ben Thompson was game high-scorer with 25 points. Fellow senior John King contributed 11 points before fouling out with four minutes remaining.

However, the opposing coach was quick to point out that the two Prout co-captains did not do it all by themselves.

"They [Prout] just have a good team," Topazio said. "They are a disciplined team, they play hard, they move the ball well."

Prout sophomore starter Justin Bristol had eight points and was a physical rebounding presence at both ends of the court on Friday night. Sophomore sensation Eric Rameika, who opened the game with a pretty 3-pointer, performed in stellar fashion right through to the three minute mark when both coaches cleared their benches.  

Sixth man Jeff Lamendola came in off the bench to bring additional energy and scoring punch. As always, senior Holden Bussey at the point guard position was the linchpin that kept things rolling.

The hometown Huskies were led by the diminutive Mike Head, who scored 11 points. Ben McDonnell contributed eight points and five assists to the Mt. Hope effort.

Didn't we just play these guys?

Next up for the Prout boys is a home game Monday against Mt. Hope, the team that Prout just played Friday night. So far this season, Prout is undefeated when playing on their home court in Wakefield.

Mt. Hope, with a record of 6-11 in Division III play, is clinging to the hope of squeezing into the Division III tournament. As they prepare for the Monday match up with Prout, the Huskies find themselves in a three-way tie for 10th place.

Division III Standings as of Feb. 12

As of Saturday, Feb. 12, the top 10 teams in terms of Division III standings (as per RIIL) are as follows:

Division III

   Overall  

(1)  Johnston

15

1

18

3

(2)  Sanchez

14

1

16

3

(3)  East Greenwich

15

3

15

6

(4)  Prout

13

4

16

6

(5)  Warwick Vets

11

7

13

8

(6)  Toll Gate

9

7

9

10

(7) North Smithfield  

10

8

10

12

(8)  EWG

9

9

9

10

(9)  Burrillville

7

11

 7

16

(10)  Mt Hope

6

11

6

14

(10) Middletown

6

11

6

14

(10) Moses Brown

6

11

6

12

The three Division III teams in positions 13 through 15 are Mount St. Charles (5-12), Fatima (1-15) and Davies (0-15).

The D-3 regular games remaining to be played on Monday are

• Mt. Hope at Prout
• Mount St. Charles at Middletown
• Toll Gate at Juanita Sanchez
• Johnston at Davies

The D-3 regular season games to be played on Tuesday are

• Fatima at Johnston
• Juanita Sanchez at Davies

The D-3 regular season games to be played on Wednesday are

• Fatima at Juanita Sanchez
• Toll Gate at Moses Brown

Rough way to end the season

Mt Hope is locked in a three-way battle for the 10th and final playoff spot for the Division III Tournament.

The good news for the Bristol-Warren fans is that the Mt Hope boys’ basketball head coach, Mike Topazio, is a long-time, experienced coach, a veteran who formerly was the girls' varsity coach at Mt. Hope and before that for some 17 years was a very successful boys' varsity coach at Barrington High.

The bad news is that Fate appears to be conspiring against Mt Hope tournament aspirations.

As a result of the rescheduling of games due to snow cancellations, Mt. Hope is finishing out the last week of the regular season with four challenging games: Johnston, East Greenwich, and Prout twice.

Last Monday, they played at Division III powerhouse Johnston, where they were manhandled 68-46. The next night, on Tuesday, playing at home, they upset East Greenwich, 40-34.

Most recently, on Friday, playing at home on Senior Night, they lost to Prout, 58-35.

Monday night they are due to face Prout again, in a game that for Mt Hope will determine whether they make it into the tournament or not.

And just before Mt Hope entered this week-long challenging four game stretch, half their varsity roster was administratively removed due to academic problems.

"We are playing a little undermanned, we had six people flunk off in the last week," Topazio said. "Basically the whole bench is gone, all our starters are there, but we are very short on the bench, we can't do a lot of subbing."

Topazio has been able to bring players up from the Mt Hope junior varsity squad to round out the varsity practice squad, but even practice time has become problematic.

Mt. Hope High School is hosting a Cheerleading Competition this weekend, and so the gym is not available for practice for basketball. 

They Said It, Friday Night

• "Try to work on our defense. We need to work on our man-to-man principles, right now we are not doing a great job of coming over on the weak side and we are getting beat off the dribble, so we need to improve on those areas."
  --  Eric Simonelli, Prout head coach, when asked Friday night what his team could do better on Monday.
• "We could still conceivably get in the playoffs, we would have to win Monday, but it is not going to be easy, it is going to be tough.   We have got to keep the [Prout] big people off the boards, we have got to try to contain them a little bit on the boards.  You can't hustle defensively and then give up second shots, because basically what happens is we are one and done and they are coming down and getting second shots." 
  -- Mike Topazio, Mt Hope head coach, when asked Friday night what his team could do better on Monday.
• "Just keep moving forward, and try to make a push for the playoffs."
  -- Justin Bristol, Prout's six-foot-five sophomore forward, when asked Friday night what his team could do better on Monday.

Friday Night's Box Score

1

2

Total

The Prout School

33

25

58

Mt Hope High School

21

14

35

_

Player Stats 

Prout School

Pts

FGM

3PM

FTM

FTA

Ben Thompson

25

10

1

4

4

John King

11

4

1

2

2

Justin Bristol

8

3

0

2

3

Jeff Lamendola

6

3

0

0

1

Eric Rameika

5

2

1

0

1

AJ Butera

3

1

0

1

2

TOTAL

58

23

3

9

13

Mt Hope

Pts

FGM

3PM

FTM

FTA

Michael Head

11

4

2

1

2

Ben McDonnell

8

2

0

4

9

Ben Francis

6

2

2

0 

0 

Josh Pacheco

5

2

0

1

2

Nicholas Rodrigues

2

1

0

0

2

Eric Pattie

2

1

0

0

0

Joe Simeone

1

0

0

1

2

 TOTAL

 35

 12

4

7

17

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