Division III champions fall to No. 6 Westerly in first round
Contributing writer
JOHNSTON — It was a bittersweet ending to a fantastic season for the Tolman girls basketball team on Wednesday night in the Open Tournament round of 16 at Johnston High. The recently crowned Division III champions could not find a rhythm against D-II finalist Westerly on Wednesday night, falling 62-39.
Shooting woes, turnovers, and mental mistakes plagued the 11th seed Tigers throughout the game which left the door open for the No. 6 Bulldogs. After a strong push in the opening five minutes of the game which featured contested shots and dominating rebounding, the shots fell less and less for Tolman.
This was the Tigers first foray into the Open Tournament in its brief four years and head coach Walter ‘Bunky’ Gonzalez spoke on where he and his team fell short.
“Westerly was on their game and played a great man-to-man defense but we stood around instead of passing and cutting hard to the basket,” Gonzalez said. “We had no movement on offense with everyone just standing around, too lethargic.”
The lack of outside shooting was ap- parent early and Westerly was only going to be held at bay for so long. Westerly’s ringer, Megan Albamonti who scored game-high 20 points, proved to be too overpowering for the Tiger defense in the first half with her rebounding, finishing at the rim and transition proficiency.
With 8 minutes remaining in the first half, Albamonti began to find her game and immediately began hitting shots from all over. Her shooting contribution led to the entire Bulldog offense passing efficiently and proved too much offense to cope with in the end.
Victoria Percy led Tolman’s scoring with 10 points and dominated the glass at both ends but was stifled under the rim, having no space to operate with the rest of the offense failing to develop the outside shot. Retaining possession and inbound passing were two of the Tigers’ biggest issues, as they struggled to hold onto the ball and made producing near impossible.
“Victoria did everything she could but it was really two on one down there and most of their points came from transition layups, I think if we could limit that because of our own turnovers we wouldn’t have really had to worry about it with our half-court defense,” said Tolman assistant coach Ryan Long, who spoke of the disjointed offense and the lack of finished product at the rim.
Room to operate on the floor was slim to none due to the Bulldogs’ suffocating man-to-man defense, yet sophomore guard Jasmine Wilson checked in and proved successful at times as she diced through the Bulldog defense on several occasions. But such as the night went, every burst of momentum was marred by several self inflicted wounds.
“We had way too many turnovers, we didn’t handle the pressure well. If we had done a better job about that it probably would have been a closer game.” Gonzalez said.
However, one night to forget from the Tigers does not discredit what they accomplished this season. Tolman finished their season with a 19-2 record and capped it off with a Division III championship over Pilgrim. Gonzalez beamed with pride of his girls and already has one eye on the future of his Tiger program.
“As a whole – oh my God – we came together as a team from Day 1 and we had a goal in mind from day one which was a championship which we accomplished,” Gonzalez said. “We actually have a bona fide program here at Tolman. We have a great younger class coming up.”