Broncos can’t stop Wizards

Late comeback falls short in Burrillville’s D-II opener

WEST WARWICK — The holidays got off to a festive start for the West Warwick basketball team on Friday night as they opened up league play by posting a 53-50 win over visiting Burrillville at Dan Sylvester Gymnasium.

This time of year would be nothing without a little stress though, a sentiment West Warwick coach Richard Grenier expressed following a game that he felt was unnecessarily close.

“It wasn’t exciting for us, it was nerve-wracking,” he said.

Tied at 50 after having led the entire game, the Wizards got a go-ahead, and ultimately game-winning bucket from Ja’Khai Rose with 1:15 to go, as the defense managed to hold the Broncos scoreless over the final 2:05 of play.

Grenier felt the margin of victory should have been larger.

“We have the best player on the floor and we had to struggle for a three-point win,” he said, referring to Rose who led the team with a double-double (15 points, 24 rebounds).

Alex Johnson added a free throw inside of the final minute to make it 53-50 before a last second heave from beyond the arc by the Broncos’ Jonathan Bergin rimmed out, ending the game.

While he would have liked to have seen that shot fall, Burrillville coach Kevin Randall was more disappointed in his team’s showing at the free throw line on the night.

“Shooting 14 of 29 from the free-throw line isn’t going to win you basketball games,” he said. “I thought that there were a lot of little things that we should have done that we didn’t do in this game. We missed a couple of bunnies around the rim in the first half, we talked about that at halftime and we were terrible from the free throw line all night,” he said of his team’s overall performance.

Senior Sam Clifford led the way with 19 points, while sophomore guard Wes Cournoyer added 18, as the two combined for nearly three quarters of their team’s point total.

Grenier was impressed with their play from the other side, also crediting their defensive effort as well for making life difficult for his own players.

“I felt that Burrillville’s guards, especially defensively really put pressure on our guards and our guards didn’t handle it the way I think they are going to during the season,” he said.

The visitors kept the game close in the opening half, but West Warwick closed on a 7-3 run highlighted by a three-pointer from John Pina, part of a 10-point night for the senior, making it 3020 headed into the break.

The Broncos battled thought the course of the second half, eventually tying the game up, 50-50 on a Cournoyer three, but that would be as close as they would get in what would have made for a steal of a win.

“We battled. Holding them to what we did in the second half, I thought our man defense was great,”