The Cranston West Lady Falcons went to Moses Brown on Friday evening and squashed the Quakers 54-38 during a Girls Division I basketball clash.

Three Lady Falcons scored in double-digits.

Kaitlyn Antonucci, a sophomore forward, led the Lady Falcons with 14 points, five rebounds, and four steals.

“Kaitlyn does everything well,” West head coach PJ Thibodeau said. “If she has a bad scoring day, she’s willing to get in there and rebound and play defense. She can do anything on the court, and so, it’s amazing to see what they’re doing for each other. It really is.”

Antonucci too believes the team is starting to jell.

“I think as a team we played really well and it was overall a really good team effort,” Antonucci said.

Finishing second in scoring for the Lady Falcons was point guard Madison Alves, a sophomore, with 13 points and seven steals.

“She’s incredible,” Thibodeau said. “She’s too hard on herself all the time. She expects perfection. But she’s a rare athlete. She’s somebody that can do things that other kids can’t do. So, a lot of times it’s trying to manage her from herself. Just so that she’s not putting too much pressure on herself. But she’s just an incredible kid first of all and an incredible athlete, secondly.”

Catherine Albizu, West’s sophomore forward, contributed a double-double, recording ten points, 12 boards, and four steals.

“To me, that was probably the best game I’ve seen Catherine play today,” Thibodeau explained. “I’ve coached her in travel too. She was in seams rebounding. She was really focused, smart decisions, made shots, and took what was there. Really impressed by her.”

Albizu agreed with the coach’s assessment.

“I feel like that’s true,” Albizu said. “I think that I could definitely play a lot better and I feel like I have really great energy and that’s really what got me to have a good game.”

Moses Brown was driven by Meghan Themistocle, a senior guard, who scored 16 points, and Morgan Plouffe, a senior guard, who added seven points.

Right out of the gate, West went on a 17-0 run, which was jump-started by two straight baskets from Albizu. Alves scored six points during that spurt, while Antonucci and Talia Thibodeau recorded two apiece, and Amanda Degnan capped it with a 3-pointer.

The Quakers responded with a 6-0 run where Plouffe downed a layup, and Themistocle buried four free throws, which pulled Moses Brown within 11.

Then, with 1:24 remaining in the first half, the Quakers scored four straight buckets and cut their deficit to 21-14.

Nonetheless, West headed into halftime holding a 26-14 buffer after Albizu made a layup and Antonucci a 3-pointer.

Six minutes into the second half, Themistocle swooshed a 3ball from the top of the arc, and got the Quakers deficit down to 34-23.

West answered with back-to-back treys from Antonucci and Degnan, which gained the Lady Falcons a 40-23 buffer with 8:13 remaining.

With seven minutes to play, West expanded its margin to 44-25 after Antonucci made a breakaway layup, and then Julia Robbins a bucket.

With 3:44 left, Plouffe pulled the Quakers within 46-33 after she sank a 3ball, plus a free throw, but that’s as close as Moses Brown would get.

The win puts the youthful Lady Falcons above .500 in the league.  

“We are 6-5 now in Division I and building every week,” Thibodeau said. “We’ve got a very young team. That’s the best part of this is that it’s mostly sophomores, a couple freshmen, one junior, and one senior.”

“So, we’re still learning and we’re getting wins, which is always great for a coach,” Thibodeau expanded. “There’s no easy games in Division I; you’ve got talent all the way through. So, how we’re playing right now is the good part because we’re kind of adjusting to what other teams are doing and we’re trying to build pages into our book, put things into our portfolio, and you can see it kind of clicking. So, I’m very happy.”