The Cranston West boys’ basketball team never led on Monday night, falling to Smithfield, 74-40, as the Sentinels dominated the Falcons from start to finish.

West just can’t seem to put it all together for a full game, playing well in spurts, but showing lapses throughout the 32 minutes.

“They’re one of the top four or five teams in the state,” West head coach John Macera said. “When we play a team like this, we can’t make little mistakes, because they’re going to be magnified under a microscope.”

The Falcons had a pretty good start to the first half. After surrendering the first four points of the game, Falcons’ forward Brett Bucci answered with an and-one, sinking the free throw to cut West’s deficit to 4-3.

From there, however, the wheels began to fall off for the Falcons.

The Sentinels answered Bucci’s and-one with a 24-5 run, which was halted by a pair of free throws from Connor Kiernan, making it 28-10.

Smithfield’s lead ballooned to 28 points near the end of the half, at 42-14, but the Falcons ended the half well.

In the final minute and a half, guards Sam Franco and Andrew Albro drained three-pointers for West, ending the half on a 6-0 run to cut its deficit to 42-20 at the break.

Smithfield’s defensive pressure flustered the Falcons in the opening half, as the Sentinels were continuously forcing turnovers, which was resulting in easy buckets on the other end.

Juniors Steven Aiello and Lorenzo Fernandes were on fire from the jump, scoring 14 points apiece before halftime for Smithfield.

Fernandes, in-particular, was a force in the paint, finishing the game with 18 points and 10 rebounds – both game-highs.

Bucci led the Falcons with seven points in the first half, but it was clear that West took some steps back as a team.

“The last three or four games, we’ve taken some positive steps,” Macera said. “Tonight was clearly not one of them. It’s tough, we’ve had two or three games where we were in it for three quarters of the game, but tonight was clearly not one of them. It was a frustrating night.”

West’s compete-level was certainly higher in the second half, but it was mainly the same result.

The Falcons scored 20 points in the second half as well, but surrendered 32, as opposed to the 42 they gave up in the first half.

Even though West’s defense was stronger after the break, Macera was clear that just playing one half isn’t enough.

“It (the second half) was a little bit better,” Macera said. “But again, we’ve got to be able to put it together for the whole time. They have been doing that the last couple of games, but tonight was not one of those nights. It has to be 32 minutes. We talk about it, but translating it will take a little bit of time.”

Kiernan took a charge in the first minute of the second half and Smithfield was called for a technical foul. Andrew Albro took the free throws and calmly sank both.

Smithfield continued its hot shooting, however.

Anthony Lopez-Veras collected an offensive rebound with five minutes to go and converted a layup, making it 63-37, but that’s as close as West would get.

Reserves for the Sentinels even came in and couldn’t miss, as the home team finished the game strong to clinch a 34-point victory.

David Swanson led West with a team-high 12 points in the loss, draining four three-pointers, three of which came in the second half. Bucci chipped in with nine, while Albro scored eight.

In addition to 18 points from Fernandes, Smithfield also got 18 from Joe Delricci and 17 from Aiello.

West will now turn its attention to Cranston East, as the two rivals are set to play at West on Thursday night at 7 p.m.

The Falcons, now 0-8 in Division I, have continued to work hard and are hoping that their hard work will pay off sooner rather than later.

“Everyday the kids continue to come and work hard,” Macera said. “Being a young team and having a day off – a young team doesn’t know how to handle that. (Smithfield) is a veteran team and they knew how to handle it. We came out flat.”