Shorthanded Warriors fall to Cavs in semifinals

Freshman guard Delves leads No. 2 Juanita Sanchez to victory

EAST PROVIDENCE — There were times during the Central Falls boys basketball team’s 15-game winning streak where the Warriors had no business winning after playing a disjointed three quarters.

With 3 minutes, 44 seconds left in Saturday afternoon’s Division III semifinal against No. 2 Juanita Sanchez, the No. 3 Warriors thought they were going to pull out another improbable win.

The Warriors trailed by as many as 17 points in the second half, but with Cavalier freshman sensation Kyle Delves hobbled by a right calf cramp, Central Falls shaved 10 points off the deficit and had numerous opportunities to put even more pressure on the Cavaliers. The opportunities, however, went wanting and the Warriors’ season came to an end with a 58-47 defeat at East Providence High School.

“We really did a good job driving to the basket and creating easy chances for our teammates and that’s how we got back into the game,” junior forward Jamilson Almeida said. “I am proud of us because nobody expected us to get this far and we were the underdogs the whole way and we proved a lot of people wrong.”

“The kids have battled back all season long,” Central Falls coach Jeff Doucette said. “We’ve had this winning streak where there were games we shouldn’t have won and we just came back. When we cut it down to eight, I thought ‘Wow, these guys are going to do it again.’ It’s amazing the heart these kids showed.”

Central Falls (16-3 Division III) finished 16th in the state power rankings, which would’ve been good enough for an Open tournament spot in the past, but only 12 teams make the cut this season. Warrior guard Moises Maldonando only scored two points in the first half, but the senior exploded for 17 points in the second half to finish with a team-high 19 points. Julian Ortiz added 11 points for a shorthanded Warrior team that essentially played five players the whole game.

Juanita Sanchez (17-2 Division III) moves on to Monday night’s final against No. 1 North Providence at the Amica Mutual Pavilion. The Cavaliers, who need to win the game to reach the Open state tournament, were led by the talented Delves, who scores 12 of his game-high 27 points in the second quarter.

The Cavaliers dragged the Warriors into their style of game – a frenetic full-court contest full of shots and turnovers. Despite five turnovers and only six points in the open quarter, the Warriors still only trailed by five going into the second quarter.

Delves outscored the Warriors by himself (12-10) in the second quarter, as the Warriors switched up defenses, but it didn’t do much good. Central Falls went into halftime trailing by 16 points thanks to 10 turnovers against the Cavaliers’ fullcourt press.

“We were just pushing everything and we were rushing too much instead of coming down and setting things up,” Almeida said. “Props to Juanita for forcing us to do that because they rushed and did what they were supposed to do.”

“We knew what they want to do is speed you up and it was the same thing against West Warwick,” Doucette said. “We controlled it against West Warwick, but here, we couldn’t get into our half-court offense the entire first half. They did a great job pressuring us and forcing us into really bad shots.”

The deficit grew to 17 points late in the third quarter after another Delves hoop, but the freshman suffered a calf cramp moments later when he stretched to keep a pass from going out of bounds. With the freshman on the trainer’s table, Maldonando, Almeida, Ortiz, Sire Hazard and Leandro Rojas went to work.

Central Falls cut the deficit to eight with 4:19 left after a pair of Maldonando free throws and the Warriors could’ve cut into the deficit more a minute later, by Almeida missed a pair of free throws and the Warriors missed their next three shots. Delves ended the drama with a second-chance bucket with 2:19 left to stretch the lead back to 10 points.

“Those five guys left it all on the floor and that’s all I can ask of them,” Doucette said. “For the two seniors – Julian and Moises – I feel so bad for them because they really wanted to get to the AMP. I’ve been at CF for eight seasons and this is by far our best season, This was special.”