Pats edge Spartans in OT at WW Holiday Classic

Jacob Marrocco
Posted 12/30/14

The Pilgrim High School boys’ basketball team overcame a sluggish second half to capture a 52-49 overtime victory over Scituate High School at the West Warwick Holiday Classic on Saturday night. …

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Pats edge Spartans in OT at WW Holiday Classic

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The Pilgrim High School boys’ basketball team overcame a sluggish second half to capture a 52-49 overtime victory over Scituate High School at the West Warwick Holiday Classic on Saturday night.

Freshman forward Tyrone Weeks led Pilgrim with 12 points and three blocks off of the bench.

“One of our strengths is our depth,” Pilgrim head coach Michael Batalon said. “We don’t have a superstar per se, but we do have 11 guys that can play.”

The Patriots battled back after allowing Scituate to go on a 25-9 run out of the intermission to force the extra period, during which both teams combined for seven points. With the score knotted at 47, Scituate big men Wyatt Laprade and Collins Omollo had fouled out, taking away some of the Spartans’ advantage on the inside. Junior guard Ethan Schneider drew Laprade’s final infraction and sank the only point in the first minute of overtime to put Pilgrim up one.

“We lucked out,” Batalon said. “We had a couple of their big guns [Laprade and Omollo] foul out, but I thought we played very good defense in the last four minutes to hold them down.”

Scituate’s Nick Pietranozzi, who led all scorers with 19, responded at the other end of the floor with the Spartans’ only field goal in extra time to put them back in the lead. Pilgrim was able to seal their victory, though, at the charity stripe. All five of its overtime points came from the free-throw line and it converted 62.5 percent of their opportunities.

Weeks went down with 1:57 remaining in overtime after he hit knees with an opposing player. Batalon said after that the injury was more than likely just a bruise.

“Weeks is long and athletic,” Batalon said. “He can block shots and bother shots and he’s got a good touch around the rim. He’s a big, important player for us.”

The Patriots held a two-point lead after senior forward Chris Duchesneau made both of his free throws and junior guard Brandon Lawton made one.

After calling a timeout, the Spartans had the ball at half court with nine seconds to go. The inbounds pass went to Pietranozzi, who had it poked away by freshman guard Matt Woods as he attempted to dribble inside. Woods was fouled and hit one of his two free throws to extend the lead to three. The Spartans hurried a 3-point shot as time expired, but it banged off the back of the rim.

Pilgrim started off slow, as it was down 14-5 only a few minutes into the game. The bench ignited the Patriots, though, and led them on a 22-6 run to close out the first half. Senior center Persio DaLomba registered six points off of the bench and Weeks had four, but early foul trouble restricted his minutes. In the span of two minutes, Weeks scored a layup, recorded rebounds on two straight drives, blocked an attempt on Scituate’s end and went back down the floor for two more points.

“We work hard as a team on defense and we made them get fouls to foul out their big men,” Weeks said. “It was easier on offense once we got through on defense.”

The Patriots held a 27-20 advantage going into halftime, and the poor 3-point shooting from Scituate helped create opportunities for Pilgrim. Despite sending up several shots from beyond the arc, the Spartans only converted on two of them during the first half.

That would change after the break. Scituate came out firing when Brian Heston hit an attempt from deep and Pietranozzi made two consecutive 3-point shots to chip away at its deficit. He hit another later in the half to extend Scituate’s lead out to 45-36 with 4:42 to go. Despite their improved shooting, the Spartans found themselves in the penalty with 6:42 remaining in the game. Pilgrim took advantage and hit 12 of its 16 free-throw attempts down the stretch (75 percent). Weeks went 6-for-6 from the charity stripe during the last four minutes.

Batalon said the use of the full-court press also helped Pilgrim surge late in the second half.

“It really picked up our intensity and we started getting some turnovers,” Batalon said. “We became more enthusiastic and we were able to come back in the game.”

Schneider missed a 3-point attempt from the corner with less than 40 seconds to go with Pilgrim down 47-45, but was fouled in the act and made two of his three shots at the line to level the score. Scituate ended regulation in the same fashion as overtime, with a missed 3-point attempt.

Pilgrim played West Warwick on Monday night in the Holiday Classic. Results were unavailable at press time.

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