By RYAN D. MURRAY

The Cranston West Falcons went to a packed Johnston High School on Friday night and outlasted the Panthers 60-53 during a Boys Division II Basketball showdown.

Marcus Chung, a junior, led the Falcons with 17 points while Joe Domenico, a senior finished with 15, and Hudson Carvalho, a junior, 10.

West improved to 2-5 in DII with the victory.

“It’s been a tough year with COVID and all the guys rotating in and out, but we’re starting to come together,” West head coach Matt Fontaine said. “We’re starting to value the stuff we’re doing in practice and we’re seeing it really come out in the game. So, it’s nice to see the kids getting rewarded for it because they’re the ones putting the work in and they’re doing it every day, and they’re the ones getting rewarded, so I’m happy for that.”

Anthony Corsinetti, a junior, led the Panthers with 16 points while Hunter Remington, a senior, and Derek Salvatore, a junior, chipped in 13 points apiece.

Johnston jumped out to an early 6-2 advantage after Remington and Salvatore buried back-to-back 3-pointers.

Midway through the first frame, West grabbed its first lead at 13-9 when Domenico and Anthony Veltri sank two consecutive 3-point shots.

Remington answered with a trey before Salvatore closed the quarter with a layup, which gave the Panthers a 14-13 lead.

Johnston upped its advantage to 17-13 when CJ Ragosta buried a trey to start the second quarter.

Down the other end, Carvalho made a layup while he was fouled, and then the junior added a free throw and completed the 3-point play and pulled the Falcons within 17-16.

Next, Jaymien Aponte made a bucket after an inbound pass and gave the Falcons an 18-17 lead. West contained the one-point margin through the remainder of the quarter and headed into halftime leading 32-31.

Veltri opened the third frame with a 3-pointer, and then Domenico made a layup and extended the Falcons lead to 37-32.

Johnston, though, would even the score at 43 when Corsinetti and Jayden Testa drilled a pair of 3-pointers.

Nonetheless, West finished the third frame on a 5-0 run with Carvalho scoring by way of a 3-point play, and Chung a steal and a breakaway layup, which built West a 48-43 cushion.

The Falcons increased their lead to 57-45 midway through the fourth frame when Chung sank a trey and Aponte, a layup.

Johnston closed the game on an 8-3 run, but it was too little too late and the Falcons escaped with a 60-53 triumph.

West was able to hold on despite struggling from the charity stripe down the stretch.

“Some of its nerves, I think,” Fontaine said. “We have a bunch of guys without any varsity experience, so we’re trying to do that stuff in practice. We give them some aerials in practice to knock down free throws, we’ll get better at it. The big thing is we won. We’ll show the film of it. It’s no secret, we didn’t knock down our free throws. We missed many opportunities for open layups down the end to put the game away, but the key is we won, and they’ll learn from it and just get better each day.” 

“First three quarters we were right in it,” Panthers head coach Mike Bedrosian said. “Fourth quarter, we got a little stagnant on offense and those are the kinks that we have to work out. But we’ll be alright. We’ll right the ship and we’ll be okay.”

The Falcons hosted Lincoln (2-3) on Tuesday, but that score was unavailable at press time. West will play again on Friday at Middletown (4-4) at 7 p.m.