By ALEX SPONSELLER The No. 6 Cranston West girls basketball team upset No. 3 Barrington 45-44 in the quarterfinals on Monday evening.

The Falcons would mount an early eight-point lead but Barrington would catch fire in the second half and take a 38-33 advantage with less than six minutes remaining in regulation.

West would battle back and get a chance to take a lead with five seconds remaining when Maia Riccio was fouled. Riccio would come in clutch, hit both of her foul shots to give West the 45-44 lead which would be enough to secure the wild win.

“Everyone is riding high right now, so we just need to ride this momentum into the next game on Thursday night. Perseverance and character, that’s what it comes down to. Togetherness. We’ve had that all season long, the kids genuinely care about each other,” said West coach Nerson Santiago.

Maylina Cotto-Santiago led West with 15 points scored, all coming on 3-pointers. Kaitlyn Antonucci added 10 points as well.

Santiago was proud of his team’s well-rounded effort in the win.

“Cotto-Santiago was lights out shooting, her five three-pointers were huge. Then Maddie Alves’ defense, the tenacity was impeccable. Catherine Albizu got into some foul trouble early with three in the first quarter, so we had to use some of our freshman and Vanessa Piscione came up with a huge three (in the fourth quarter).”

West will next take on the winner of Tuesday’s matchup of No. 2 Ponaganset and No. 7 Bay View. The results of that matchup were not available at press time.

After falling to Barrington in the semifinals last season, the Falcons were excited to get some revenge and move on to the next round.

“A lot of these girls played deep into the playoffs last year so I think that experience helped them. (Barrington) beat them in the semis last year by more than 20 points, so to turn around this year to beat them twice, it was a big statement win for us,” Santiago said.