Pats increase lead in standings with win over Titans

Matt Metcalf
Posted 2/5/15

Pilgrim and Toll Gate came into Tuesday night’s game in fourth and fifth place respectively in Division III-South, so the intra-city rivalry wasn’t the only thing motivating the two teams. …

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Pats increase lead in standings with win over Titans

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Pilgrim and Toll Gate came into Tuesday night’s game in fourth and fifth place respectively in Division III-South, so the intra-city rivalry wasn’t the only thing motivating the two teams.

Despite a sloppy start for both teams, Pilgrim was able to create a 10-point cushion at the half, and rolled to a 46-32 win. The victory pushed the Pats to 9-3, and more importantly, stretched the gap in the standings to three and a half games over the Titans.

Pilgrim and Toll Gate were careless with the ball in the first half, combining for 33 turnovers in the first 16 minutes – 20 by the Titans.

The lack of cohesiveness can partly be attributed to the lack of practice over the past two weeks, as cancellations due to weather have set back many teams around the state.

“Honestly, it’s the weather,” Pilgrim head coach Ian Smith said when asked why he thought the start to the game was sloppy. “We haven’t had practice. We played Friday night, then they had the weekend off and school was cancelled yesterday. I think we’ve only practiced once in the last two weeks, so it has been interesting, but we’re figuring it out.”

Toll Gate’s Hannah McNulty started the game off with a layup in the paint, but then the Titans struggled to score over the next four minutes.

Pilgrim went on a 9-1 run after McNulty’s basket, sparked by a nice feed from point guard Hannah Page to Alexia Martins, who banked a shot off the glass after cutting to the hoop.

But the Titans battled back, with McNulty draining a 3 off of an inbounds pass, cutting Pilgrim’s lead to 9-6.

The Titans made it 9-8, before McNulty exited the game with foul trouble, which changed the game completely.

“Foul trouble hurt us,” Toll Gate head coach John Paolino said. “I think Hannah sat out for seven or eight minutes of the first half. That was huge, because we would’ve had some more inside play.”

After McNulty went to the bench, Pilgrim cranked up its full-court press, resulting in some easy, transition points.

The Pats were able to break the game open a bit, producing a 10-0 run to take a 19-8 lead.

Page drained a 3 with 3:18 to play in the first half to stretch Pilgrim’s lead to 12 points, at 22-10.

The Pats had tremendous balance in the win from their starting five.

In the first half, Page led all scorers with eight points, while Martins scored seven and Alexa Annotti had six.

After the first few minutes of the game, the Pats’ starting five were dominant.

They moved the ball well on the offensive end, resulting in three players finishing in double-digits, while forcing 28 turnovers for the game on defense.

“I don’t think I subbed until three quarters into the game, which is rare,” Smith said. “It’s a credit to how well they were playing. The girls off the bench were great too, so it was a team effort. If we can run, then we’ll be in good shape for our defense to make our offense happen, and we did that tonight.”

Despite the foul trouble, McNulty led the Titans with five points in the opening half.

Going into the second half, the Titans wanted to cut down on their turnovers, and they did. As a result, they played a much better second half.

“We didn’t turn the ball over as much and did a better job of handling their pressure,” Paolino said. “They’re a tough defensive team because they’re very smart. He (Smith) does a great job with that 2-2-1 because it slows us down.”

Toll Gate was able to cut its deficit to single-digits early in the half, but never threatened to take the lead.

With the Pats up by 10, Annotti stole the ball with 11:09 remaining and pushed the ball ahead to Page, who finished at the rim, giving Pilgrim a 32-20 lead.

Two minutes later, Martins capitalized off of another Toll Gate turnover for an easy layup, giving Pilgrim a 14-point lead.

McNulty scored eight second-half points for the Titans, but the lead was insurmountable.

As Smith alluded to, Pilgrim’s bench did contribute when called upon late, as forward Crystal Armstrong chipped-in with two points and five rebounds in the final minutes of the game.

Annotti and McNulty led the way for their respective teams, with 13 points apiece.

Page finished with 12 points for Pilgrim, while Martins scored 11 and Kendra Tantimonico netted seven and pulled down a game-high 11 boards.

Despite the loss, Paolino was proud of his team’s effort.

“That’s a good loss for us, to be honest,” Paolino said. “Pilgrim, right now, is a better team than us. But compared to the way that we played them at their place in January, tonight was 10 times better. I’m very pleased with the effort. I was happy with my bench because we had some kids who weren’t feeling well and we had some foul trouble.”

The Titans hosted 9-1 Narragansett on Wednesday night, but results were unavailable at press time. They will also play at Rocky Hill tonight at 5:30 p.m.

Rocky Hill has just one win this season, so that is a game that the Titans need to have if they want to make a serious playoff push.

“I don’t want to put pressure on the kids, but the reality is that we have a shot to make the playoffs and we haven’t been there in a long time,” Paolino said.

Pilgrim will have a chance to push its record to 11-3 by the end of the week.

The Pats will host Vets at 6:30 p.m. tonight, before hosting Block Island on Friday at 3 p.m.

Pilgrim has now solidified itself as one of the top teams in D-III, widening the gap in the standings between the top four teams in D-III-South and everyone else.

“We talked about the fact that we’re in fourth and they’re in fifth,” Smith said. “Tonight was a game where we wanted to stretch the lead and we took care of that opportunity.”

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