The final Warwick Vets home varsity basketball game wasn’t a disappointment.

The ’Canes had a 37-34 lead with 4:14 to go, but the Raiders closed out the game on a 10-5 run led by leading scorer Reginae Cosby. Cosby poured in 27, including six of her team’s final nine points, to lead Shea past Vets 44-42.

The game was tied at 34 heading into the final seven minutes when Vets guard Kat Raposo sank her third 3-pointer of the half to put the ’Canes out in front. She finished the day with a team-high 17 points to go with five rebounds and five steals.

“Raposo has been a strong player all year,” Vets head coach Owen Paquet said. “Ball-handler, scorer, defensive wiz. Steals when we need them.”

Cosby sunk a layup to cut the deficit to 1, then made another with 3:30 left to go to put Shea up 38-37. She padded the lead with another make before she fouled out with two minutes to go after committing an offensive foul.

Vets took over down 40-37, and senior guard Emma Nason missed a 3-pointer. The rebound bounced back out to the ’Canes, and Nason took another long-distance shot at nylon, this time converting to tie the game.

Shea’s Dala Mendes was fouled down at the other end and sunk both of her free throws, and then went underneath for a layup on the next possession to put Shea out in front, 44-40.

An empty Vets possession gave Shea the ball with 8.8 seconds to go before a foul put Mendes at the line. She missed both and Paquet called a timeout with 4.3 seconds remaining and the ball just past half court.

The ball was inbounded to center Caitlyn Fallon for an uncontested layup, but time expired before Vets could foul again.

“The emotions were high,” Paquet said. “They wanted to keep the fight going, but my words to them [were] ‘You fought a good fight.’ And it was a tough one to lose, at the wire. But that’s where we were standing when we went into this game.”

Fallon managed a double-double with 10 blocks and 11 rebounds to go with four points and two steals. However, she missed eight minutes total after falling to the floor late in the first half and hyperextending her wrist.

“Beasting on the backboards, unbelievable control for a freshman [and] playing beyond her years,” Paquet said of Fallon. “It definitely hurt a ton. She’s our defensive wiz with usually getting 10 blocks a game and controlling the backboards, and that’s key to basketball. We were struggling in the beginning anyway, controlling the backboards and the flow of the game. So it took a toll on us for those eight minutes.”

Without Fallon inside for the final minutes of the first half, Cosby reached over the rest of the players for most of the offensive and defensive rebounds. Multiple second-chance opportunities allowed Shea to build a 26-18 lead going into the break.

Vets was able to hang around in the first half because of nine first-half points from Mackenzie Hough, who drilled two 3-point baskets to pace the ’Canes.

Fallon made her present felt immediately after re-entering the game two minutes into the second half, though, when she grabbed a defensive rebound on a missed free throw. A full-court assist from Raposo allowed Fallon to notch her first points of the game, tying the score at 31 at that point.

The freshman force couldn’t get much going after that point, and the brunt of the scoring fell on Raposo. She scored 13 of the ’Canes’ 24 points in the second half, after only having four in the first.

She caught fire with Vets trailing 28-18. After a layup from Brianna DeRobbio, Raposo sunk a pair of free throws to cut the deficit down to 6. Next time down the court, Destinee Charette kicked an offensive rebound out to the corner, where Raposo was waiting to hit her first 3-pointer.

She gave Vets its first lead of the game, 34-33, halfway through the second when she got another long-distance shot to go.

The final game of the season brought about the end of Warwick Vets varsity hoops, but this year’s development of this group of players was key as they continue their basketball futures elsewhere.

“It’s all about progression at individual skill, and as a team we have progressed a ton,” Paquet said. “They [can] take a good, long-lasting memory and it was fun.”

(Editor's note: this story was edited to correct the spelling of Reginae Cosby's last name.)