During its first meeting with East Providence on Jan. 6, it was a sloppy first half that cost Cranston East an upset bid.

Thursday night, East played a solid first half and took just a five-point deficit into the break. Then, a 15-2 Townies run broke the game open and helped keep East at a distance the rest of the night. East Providence cruised from there to a 66-54 victory behind three double-figure performances.

“I don’t know if it was the legs or not,” East head coach Isaiah McDaniel said of his team’s poor second-half output. “I know free throw shooting we struggled tonight. Shooting, period, we struggled tonight. We made two outside shots. Those are the things we have to learn to work through.”

The ’Bolts looked to get into a shooting rhythm as the end of the first half neared. Paul Maguire drained a 3-pointer and Aireus Raspberry’s layup cut the deficit to five, 31-26. The Townies struggled to find nylon before the intermission, but they would have no issue coming out of it.

While East went ice-cold from the field, East Providence (7-2) warmed up. Quinton Osbourne got a shot to fall that cushioned the lead, followed by Kyerstan Casey extending it out to double digits with a long-range make.

Before the ’Bolts (5-4) knew it, The Townies had jumped out to nearly a 20-point advantage. Dion Hazard, the night’s leading scorer with 18, and Deyshawn Tengbeh (16) each got contested shots to drop through to fire up the crowd. Osbourne came through with a couple more inside looks to close out the furious run, 44-28.

East would eventually slash the deficit down to single digits on a few occasions, but free throw shooting damaged the comeback. Raspberry, East’s top producer this season, missed six at the charity stripe and the ’Bolts missed nine altogether.

“I think it’s a focus thing,” McDaniel said of the free throw shooting. “I don’t think it has much to do with maturity. Focusing while you’re at the line and at practice, not going through the motions while we’re shooting free throws in practice. Really concentrating and going through the routine that they’re going to go through in a game at the free throw line.”

Despite their woes at the line, the ’Bolts hung close in the final minutes. Raspberry notched a steal-and-score to bring it to 56-48. Maguire got East the closest it would get all half, 58-52, after Maguire’s field goal with 1:46 to go.

The ’Bolts seemed to get a stop on the other end when Casey heaved up an errant shot from downtown, but he was fouled on the follow-through. All three free throws fell to ice the victory for East Providence.

“We have to get better on the road, especially if we want to make playoffs,” McDaniel, whose team sports a 1-3 league record away from home, said. “We’ve got to get them on the road.”

The win put the ’Bolts two games out of first place in Division I-Central, but they were able to keep pace against Smithfield on Saturday. East took down the Sentinels, 74-67, behind 21 points and four 3-pointers from Janzel Liberata. Sam Hanley (16) and Raspberry (13) also both reached double-digits.

East faces a gauntlet of three games in four days, starting Wednesday night against undefeated St. Ray’s on the road. The ’Bolts host La Salle on Friday at 7 p.m. before a non-league tilt with Norwich Academy at CCRI’s Knight Campus on Saturday night.

“I’ve been trying to get out and see [teams outside our subdivision],” McDaniel said. “I haven’t seen many, so it’s going to come down to we need to play our best basketball every night, especially without being as familiar with the teams as we’ve been playing. [We need to] just be more physical and clean up the little things.”