Rogers Makes Finals During 3-Point Shootout

The bleachers filled. The music played. The shooters practiced. It was time for the Fourth Annual 3-Point Shootout basketball competition to begin, sponsored by the

Middletown High School, Portsmouth High School, Tiverton High School, Rogers High School, St. George's School and Portsmouth Abbey all took part in the event Saturday night, held at the Rodgers Recreation Center at  

THE RULES

For the 3-point shootout, each player was allowed five shots from five spots on the court. They had two minutes to attempt all of their shots. The first four shots counted as one point each if sunk and the fifth was the "Money Ball," worth two points. The top four shooters from the first round for both girls and boys advanced to the semifinal round. The top two from the semifinal then advanced to the final round. The player with the highest score from the final round was dubbed the winner. 

For the Shooting Stars or skills competition, each school was represented by two pairs of players with one boy and one girl on per team. The goal was to complete five shots from selected locations on the floor using only one ball this time. One player would shoot, the other would rebound for their partner. The elimination rules were the same as the 3-point shootout with time being the deciding factor in this game, still with a semifinal and a final round, determining the winning team.

THE SHOOTING SKILLS COMPETITION

After pairing up, the teams took the court for the first round of the skills portion. Despite a rapid fire time of 57 seconds in the second round from Middletown's Lauren Paiva and Jack McCabe, it was Tiverton's combo of Sam Welchman and Alex Rosa who ultimately took first.

THE 3-POINT SHOOTOUT

Despite many shining performances in the first round of the most anticipated event of the night, these top eight players advanced to the semifinals:

ON THE BOYS SIDE:

4.  Marc Washington (Rogers)

3.  Pat Lynch (Portsmouth)

2.  Cody Platt (Rogers)

1.  Jalen O'Loughlin (Middletown)

ON THE GIRLS SIDE:

4.  Kirsten Perry (Middletown)

3.  Olivia Chaves (Rogers)

2.  Sam Welchman (Tiverton)

1.  Lindsey Haslam (Portsmouth)

The shootout portion of the night lived up to its name and matched up Cody Platt from Rogers and Pat Lynch from Portsmouth to the boys finals, and and Sam Welchman from Tiverton, and Lindsey Haslam from Portsmouth in the girls finals.

In the end, it was Pat Lynch from Portsmouth who had the hot hand and won for the boys. On the girls side, Lindsey Haslam from Portsmouth was triumphant. The winners each received a commerative plaque from the Newport Daily News.