The Cranston West Falcons kept their playoff hopes alive, beating the Pilgrim Patriots 76-59 on Friday night at Pilgrim during a boys Division II basketball battle.

With the win, the Falcons have five wins and need to win two more games to clinch a playoff berth. West has four games remaining in the regular season.

“We just take it one game at a time,” Falcons head coach Michael Monahan said. “Every time we hit the court, it’s another opportunity to get us closer to our goal. We’ve got a tough one Tuesday night at home against Tiverton. So, we’ve got to bring the same intensity and effort on Tuesday night that we brought tonight and hope that it translates to a win.”

West had three players score in double digits with Joe Ragosta, a senior guard, tallying 18 points, Cam Bissitt, also a senior, with 16, and Andrew Dionizio, a junior forward, finishing with 15.

Pilgrim received 14 points each from Dave D’Andrea, a senior, and Kenny Rix Jr, a sophomore and 13 from Will Pariseau, a senior.

The Falcons took a 6-2 lead, two minutes into the contest, on two buckets from Dionizio, plus a steal and a layup from junior point guard Cam Alves.

A minute later, West upped its edge to 9-4 when Bissitt buried a corner 3-ball.

The Pats got layups from D’Andrea and Xavier Monteiro after that and cut the deficit to one. Both buckets came after assists from Rix.

Nonetheless, West answered that with an 8-2 run and constructed a 17-10 cushion with ten minutes remaining in the half. That spurt saw Rogosta score six points, first a 3-point shot, and then, an old-fashioned three-point play.

Pilgrim fought back again and got within two after a 3-pointer from Pariseau and a pull-up jumper from Jaron Thomas.

Then with 8:20 left in the frame, West’s Jared Olson drilled a shot from beyond the arc and put the Falcons up 20-15.

Four minutes later, the Falcons extended their advantage to 33-24 when Dinoizio dished to Bissitt for a corner trey, and then, on the next tour down, Dionizio put back a Bissitt miss.

West brought a 36-28 lead into halftime.

Pilgrim used two 3-pointers from Rix, and one from Pariseau, and started the second half on a 9-0 run, which gave the Pats a brief 37-36 advantage with 13:01 remaining.

Down the other end, West’s Massimo Feroce drew the foul and made a pair shots while at the charity stripe, which gave the Falcons the lead back at 38-37.

Feroce scored two more times after that and gave the Falcons a 42-37 lead with 11:33 to play.

West added to its buffer when they went on a 15-4 run over the next five minutes and upped its advantage to 16.

The Falcons built their largest lead with 32 seconds remaining when Ragosta made a pair of free throws and then, Ethan Ryan made a putback, which made it 76-56.

Pilgrim’s D’Andrea answered that eruption with a shot from downtown with 13 seconds left and got the Pats within 76-59.

Monahan was thrilled to leave Pilgrim’s hostile gym with a victory.

“We kept our composure,” Monahan said. “We took care of the ball in the second half. We only had four turnovers in the second half. That’s one of our team goals is to eliminate our turnovers. So, we did a good job of that. But, Pilgrim’s an outstanding team. They’re a team on the rise. They play with a lot of heart. They’ve got kids that can shoot it and they’re very athletic.”

The Falcons improve to 5-9 in the conference with the win while the Pats fall to 3-12.