The Pilgrim boys basketball team’s recent shooting struggles continued in last weekend’s Division II quarterfinal game, as West Warwick held off a late Patriot comeback attempt to walk away with the 54-50 win.

Pilgrim shot just 19-for-63 in the contest and trailed 35-29 heading into the fourth quarter. The West Warwick lead reached eight, but Pilgrim clawed back within two points in the final minutes, however, the Wizard offense would hit key shots down the stretch to put the game away.

“I thought we played good enough defense to win that game but we just couldn’t put the ball in the ocean. We just didn’t perform, we didn’t shoot. We had a bunch of shots that we’d normally make,” said Pilgrim coach Sean Henseler. “If you’re going to win a game like this on the road, those are shots that you need to make.”

The fourth quarter comeback push was led by senior guard Dylan Vale, who scored 16 of his team-leading 24 points in the final frame. Vale hit four 3-pointers in the final 12 minutes.

“Our mindset is always to try to chip away and hit shots. Down the stretch we hit our groove, hit our shots, got some stops, but unfortunately we couldn’t get it done,” said Vale.

Jayden Ames finished with eight points and Carter Clifton scored seven.

To make matters worse for Pilgrim, Clifton fouled out in the fourth quarter to slow down the offensive momentum. 

“It’s not like we had to do anything different, we just had to make the shots. Dylan hit a few good shots. The ball handling was good, the rebounding was good. It was tough when Carter fouled out, but we lost because we didn’t shoot,” Henseler said.

As Pilgrim prepares for next season it will be saying bye to Vale and Clifton, who have been leaders on and off the court for the Pats the past several seasons.

“I’m very proud of the development of both (Vale) and Carter. They’re great kids all around, they work very hard and I loved having them on the team. They bring so much to the team and it’s going to be tough not having them around,” said Henseler.

Vale was proud of the work that the entire senior class has done the past four years, from the youth level on up.

“The whole senior group, we’ve played together for a really long time and I think that a lot of people that watched us expected us to start in high school and build together. I think we did a nice job of that and I think our senior class made a big impact on Pilgrim and Warwick basketball,” Vale said. “It’s always fun working with the younger kids at Warwick Youth Basketball, I think we did a lot for Warwick basketball.”

Vale and Clifton were named to the coaches association’s Division II First Team while Jack Cirelli made the second team. Vale was named to the all-conference second team and Clifton made the third team.