The Cranston East Thunderbolts zapped the Cranston West Falcons, 63-35, at East in the Holiday Invitational championship on Wednesday night.

East sophomore Aireus Raspberry and senior Sam Hanley finished with 14 points each.

“They both played a very good game tonight,” Cranston East head coach Isaiah McDaniel said. ”If they’re both playing well and they both can get into double digits, we’ll be good for that night.”

For West, senior forward Brett Bucci did the bulk of the scoring, racking up 21 points.

The game started with both teams trading blows. West got on the board first when sophomore guard Steven Rocchio scored to put the Falcons up 2-0. Soon after, East tied the game at 3 when Raspberry found Hanley for a corner 3 with 12:47 left in the first half. Hanley buried another trey on his next trip down, giving East an early 6-3 advantage.

Falcons’ senior Mike O’Neill scored from downtown to tie it at 6. Next, Hanley found senior forward Donovan Ranglin for a jumper to put East up two. But, West tied it on a layup from junior forward Nick Dionizio. Next, East went ahead on a Raspberry jumper. Down the other end, Bucci got an offensive rebound and scored a putback layup to tie the game at 10 with 9:13 remaining in the half.

Later in the first half, East went on a 12-1 run and got some separation. Isaiah Hinds started the spurt when he buried a 3-pointer, giving East a 15-14 lead. Next, Hanley and Hinds hit layups to increase the margin to five. East continued to build on the cushion. A corner 3 by senior Janzel Liberata boosted the ’Bolts’ lead to 22-15. Liberata, Hinds and Raspberry continued the onslaught, helping East to a 27-15 edge with 2:35 left in the first half.

East held a 35-17 advantage heading into the break.

Bucci got the Falcons on the board first in the second half, scoring back-to-back buckets.

East earned its first points of the second half when Hanley got a theft and dished to Raspberry for a layup, giving East a 37-21 lead.

Raspberry banged a 3-pointer with 7:57 to play to put the ’Bolts up 45-32. The next trip down, Raspberry assisted to Maguire for a layup. Then, sophomore Mack Hanley drained a jumper for East and Blanco followed it with the old-fashioned 3-point play, helping East out to a 52-32 buffer before cruising to victory.

McDaniel believes that the victory is definitely a confidence booster for his ’Bolts after dropping the last two games.

“Losing the last two on the road in the division, coming home and finding a little bit of a groove is definitely a good thing, and a good way to go into next Friday night’s game against East Providence,” McDaniel said. “I think they needed to play at home to get some of the pressure off their shoulders.”

West head coach John Macera saw some progress from his Falcons as well.

“They were improving a little bit,” Macera said. “They’re coming to play each game. We had a bad stretch with about six minutes left in the first half. That caught us big. We just got to be a little more disciplined. We made some mistakes that we’re hoping to correct further down the road. It’s a learning curve.”