Tiverton Girls End Losing Skid With 50-34 Win Over Toll Gate

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And to the Tiverton High School girls’ basketball team, this one was gorgeous.

The Tigers won for the first time in more than six weeks Thursday night, snapping a seven-game losing streak by pulling away in the second half and defeating Toll Gate High School of Warwick, 50-34, in a Division II-South contest.

Bianca DiPrato and Haley Higginbottom both netted 9 points and Jackie Wilson and Samantha Welchman both totaled 8 points in a balanced offensive attack as Tiverton led from start to finish, but did not seal its victory until the final three minutes of action. The Tigers are now 3-8 against divisional rivals and 4-10 on the year.

Sophomore Ingrid Freeman nailed six three-point baskets en route to a game-high 21 points for the Titans, who dropped to 0-12 in league play and 0-14 overall.

“It feels good to get a victory and it should give us a little bit of encouragement that we can play at this level,” Tiverton Coach Derrick Wise said. “Obviously, Toll Gate is struggling even more than we are this year. We just have a few young ladies who are a little more athletic.”

And the Tigers’ athleticism proved decisive in a game which was hardly an aesthetic success, featuring a slew of turnovers, unforced errors and personal fouls. Tiverton proved to be more alert and active on defense which triggered several easy scoring opportunities and kept the guests at bay in critical situations.

After forging a 26-19 halftime lead, Tiverton stumbled out of the gate in the second period, managing just five free throws and no field goals during the first 5:35 of action. Treys by Freeman and Amber Bouchard sliced the Tiger edge to 29-25 with 10:56 to play until Tiverton’s aggressive zone defense sparked by Welchman, Maya Bergandy (6 points) and Wilson fueled a 15-4 burst that opened a 44-29 cushion at the 4:57 mark.

A bucket by Nicole Fraser (7 points) and Freeman’s final three-pointer reduced the Toll Gate deficit to 44-34 with 2:53 left, but the Tigers shut out the visitors the rest of the way and ran off the last six points of the contest.

“This victory is a good morale boost for us and it feels good to go home a winner,” Wise said. “Defensively, we did some nice things tonight and forced a lot of turnovers.”

Two Higginbottom hoops and three points from DiPrato gave Tiverton an early 7-0 advantage, but the Titans narrowed the gap to 9-7 at the 8:17 mark when Freeman drained her first trey and TG’s first field goal of the game. The Titans were still within two points at 16-14 with 5:19 remaining in the opening period when scores by Wilson, Higginbottom and Jenny Burton ignited another 7-0 streak, eventually enabling the Tigers to take a seven-point bulge at the break.

Tiverton is idle until next Wednesday (Feb. 9) when it visits Warwick Veterans High School in another Division II-South outing.