Northmen overcome Novans
Sophomores lead North Smithfield to home win
NORTH SMITHFIELD — The North Smithfield girls basketball team circled this week as the week that would go a long way in deciding how far the Northmen can go in Division III this season.
With games against defending Division III champion Tolman, previously-unbeaten Woonsocket and Toll Gate in a four-day span, the Northmen knew if they won at least two of the contests, they’d be in a good position to earn a bye into the D-III quarterfinals.
After the first two games of the week, it’s time for the Northmen to get greedy and attempt to sweep all three games. Unlike Tuesday night when they needed Hope Trowbridge to bail them out, the Northmen didn’t need any late-game heroics to save the day. Sophomore center Laura Matchett scored a game-high 20 points and sophomore wing Calla Puccetti added 15 in a 51-44 victory over the Novans at Lovett Gymnasium.
“Our main goal today was to play tough defense,” said assistant coach Gary Harnois, who coached the game because head coach Ariana Stanton was out with the flu. “In the first half I thought they did great. We had one little melt down in the second half, but I thought the kids did a great job hitting the reset button and settled down.”
Woonsocket (6-2 Division III) has now hit some adversity after cruising through the first third of the schedule. The young Novans, who hadn’t been held below 60 points in 2020, scored just 40 in a road loss to Mount Pleasant Tuesday. They had just 19 at halftime Thursday before Taylor Tempest (11 points) knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to get her team back in the game.
The Novans, for the second time in as many visits to North Smithfield, were left frustrated because the Northmen attempted 38 free throws to their 12. Coach Mike Cahill, however, said there was more to the loss than just free throws.
“We’ll be fine, these were two tough road games and we battled in this one and were right there in the game,” Cahill said. “The girls worked hard and played hard. [Skylar Mette] is a good player and they were big and physical and the referees let them play that way and they took advantage of that. We have to be faster, we have to be athletic and we have to have five players rebound against a team like this.”
North Smithfield (6-1 Division III) remains in second place in the division, behind undefeated Burrillville, which had no trouble hammering the Lincoln School Thursday night at the Broncodome. Mette piloted the offense with 10 points, while Megan Masi was the only other player with more than a basket, as she scored four points.
The Northmen finish the toughest week of their campaign Friday night in Warwick against a Toll Gate team looking to snap a three-game losing streak.
“We talked last week about how this week was going to be very pivotal with how we finish the season,” Harnois said. “Let downs are very easy if we let it happen, but the girls came out and played hard.”
Woonsocket trailed by as many as 10 points early in the second half following a Puccetti 3-pointer, but the Novans responded with a 7-2 run to close the gap to five with 10:25 left in regulation. Woonsocket was only down four points after 3-pointers by Tianna Carpentier and Erinee Agyemang, but poor foul shooting (4-for-12) stymied the Novans’ comeback attempt.
Mette also struggled from the line, but she made three free throws in a two-minute stretch to push the lead out to five points. She then hit a running foul-line jumper with 1:22 left to put the game away.
“We didn’t play well in the first half, but we played OK in the second half. I was proud of the girls,” Cahill said. “If we play like we did in the second half, we’ll be all right. We battled and played hard, but a couple of things didn’t go our way at the end. We moved the ball so much better in the second half and we crashed the boards.”