Second Half Surge Powers Skippers Past Chariho

WOOD RIVER JUNCTION—A strong surge midway through the second half powered the North Kingstown girls’ basketball team past Chariho Friday at Chariho High School.

After the two teams battled back and forth to start the second half, the Skippers exploded for an 18-0 run.  North Kingstown held the Chargers without a field goal for 7:33 of the half until junior Nancy Toth broke the drought with a layup with 4:06 remaining in the game for the Chargers.

“Sometimes the most important thing that you can do is put the ball in the basket, and we did that better in the first half than in the second half,” Chariho head coach Richard Glover said.  “They had that run early in the second half, and we were never really able to make that up.”

It was a game featuring two completely different style of play, pitting Chariho’s size and halfcourt style against the Skippers speed and emphasis on motion.

“In the first half we were giving them the shots that they wanted, but in the second half we were playing more body-up man-to-man and they were having trouble getting the ball after that,” North Kingstown head coach Bob Simeone said.

As one might suspect, whichever team was able to dictate the pace of the game flourished, as evident in the flow of the game.

North Kingstown started the game on an 8-0 run with their up-and-down style, yet Chariho was able to respond with an 8-0 run of its own by getting the ball down low to senior center Krista Trenholm.

“We tried to maintain a little bit slower of a pace, but the tendency when you’re behind is to try to catch up,” Glover said.  “The pace of the game definitely speeded up in the second half, and I think that was to their advantage.”

The two teams battled back and forth in the same fashion for the entire first half, ultimately ending where they started with the game tied, this time at 32-32 as opposed to 0-0.

“It’s hard to analyze it too much, but I thought we played well, a much better game than when we played them at North Kingstown, so I’m proud of that,” Glover said. 

To take a phrase from the great Yogi Berra, it was like déjà vu all over again to start the second half, with the Skippers starting out the second with a 7-0 run, followed by an 8-0 run from the chargers.

“I was like here we go again, we’re going to go through a drought of not scoring, but instead the girls stepped up and made another run at it,” Simeone said.

The next North Kingstown run would be the knockout punch however, turning a 42-41 deficit into a 59-42 advantage over the next five minutes.

“In the second half we have the tendency to hit some cold spells, but you have to give all the credit to North Kingstown,” Glover said.

Senior Julia Smiley was key during the stretch, scoring eight of her game-high 23 points during the run.  Sophomore Marissa Carville played well for the Skippers with nine points, while senior Jackie DeCristoforo chipped in with eight points.

“We started to isolate Julia a little bit, we felt that she had the hot hand today,” Simeone said.  She’s ready to go, she’s ready for this half of the season.”

The Skippers, who snapped a three-game losing streak with the win, will look to continue their winning ways Tuesday when they host Coventry High at North Kingstown High School at 7 p.m.

“We were 0-3 coming into this game, so we knew that this important to get a run going again going into the end of the season,” Simeone said. 

GIRLS BASKETBALL

North Kingstown 66, Chariho 53

NORTH KINGSTOWN (66): Smiley 8 3-5 23, Carville 4 1-2 9, DeCristoforo 3 2-2 8, Gibson 3 1-3 7, Giraud 3 0-0 6, Wietman 2 0-0 4, Mansfield 0 3-4 3, Desanctis 1 0-0 2, Zwolinski 1 0-0 2, Ferranti 1 0-0 2; totals 26 10-18 66.

CHARIHO (53): Trenholm 10 2-3 22, Darmanin 3 2-2 10, Bergen 3 1-3 7, Toth 3 0-0 6, Beil 2 2-4 6, Loffredo 0 1-2 1, Collins 0 1-2 1; totals 21 9-16 53.

Halftime: 32-32.  3-Pointers: N, 4 (Smiley 4); C, 2 (Darmanin 2).  Fouled out: none.