Exeter-West Greenwich too much for Central Falls Monday night

CENTRAL FALLS – Last Friday night, Central Falls High committed a more-thanugly 34 turnovers during a 73-40 Division II bludgeoning at Cumberland.

In order for the Warriors to avoid another league pelting against Exeter/West Greenwich on Monday evening, head coach Brian Crookes stated it simply during his pre-game soliloquy to his players: “We've got to protect the basketball, don't make silly turnovers. We also need to protect the bucket; that is, we can't allow easy baskets, and we can't foul.”

Through the opening six minutes, Central Falls did just what its mentor wanted, but the last 10 before the break turned horrid. The Scarlet Knights easily broke the hosts' full-court press, notched several elementary layups, forced 15 miscues in all and rolled to a 50-23 cushion.

In the end, EWG strolled out of the Warriors' gym with a 71-53 conquest, but not before Crookes' crew threw quite a scare at it. Over the initial 6:01 of the final session, CF manufactured a 19-4 surge to slice the deficit from 27 to 12 before the Knights solidified their hold on the contest.

“This was right there with our best half of the season, and it's about time,” Crookes stated after his club fell to 1-9 overall and 0-5 in league action. “Now we need to put two halves together. I'm satisfied with the effort they put forth in the second half, and we're going to have to build on that for our next game.”

That will be at Middletown at 7 p.m., Wednesday.

Senior tri-captain Josh McNeil paced CF with a tilt-high 27 points, and he also chipped in 13 boards for the “double-double.” His other captains, Jolon Rubio and Eli Mercado, earned 13 and 12 points, respectively.

For EWG, now 4-3 overall and 3-2 in D-II, senior quad-captain/center Zach Buckley achieved 25 points and numerous rebounds, though was held to just seven over the last 16 minutes. Fellow captais Connor Osberg and Scott Livsey closed with 13 and nine, respective- ly, with senior Trent Walker managing seven and classmate Brandon Verrocchio six.

The Warriors actually held a 7-4 lead with less than two minutes elapsed after the opening tip, yet yielded numerous turnovers resulting in fastbreak baskets. With 9:51 left before intermission, Rubio's baseline hook cut the EWG advantage to 17-14.

That's when Buckley hit an eight-footer, Verrocchio a pair of buckets and Walker a coastto-coast one-hander in the span of 1:42 to lift the Knights to a 25-14 lead with 7:44 remaining. They later would extend that run, then at 8-0, to a 33-9 flurry prior to the break.

At halftime, Crookes gave his bunch a stern lecture on how to avoid its issues, and it worked wonders.

Rubio claimed a conventional three-point play, then a finger roll off a turnover, then a short jumper over the first 2:14 to make it 50-30. After consecutive treys from McNeil, the second with 9:59 remaining in regulation, CF knifed it to 5442.

EWG rallied once more with a quick 8-0 surge, though another McNeil trifecta cut it back to 65-50 with 4:44 left. That's when the Knights registered six unanswered points to ice it.

“I had them for 15 points off turnovers in the first half and 22 off of second-chance opportunities,” Crookes noted. “You can't play that way and expect to win. In the second half, we were able to force them to take jumpers instead of flying down the floor for layups. They were 'One shot and out' because we did a better job of rebounding.

“You still have to credit EWG; they played hard and fought hard. They just played better basketball than we did.”