The Panthers will say goodbye to their three senior captains – DeNoncour, Hopson and Simone – as well as fellow seniors Steve Perfetto, Joe Carlino, Jordan Campopiano, Jason Salvatore, Sathra Chhin and Michael Garofalo. The team went 12-6 during the regular season, notching its fourth consecutive campaign with at least 12 wins. The year as a whole was another success for Johnston. McKeon was battling illness all day, limiting him to just 20 minutes and two points. For Johnston, Evan Hopson finished with 15 points on 7-of-13 shooting, while Simone scored 12. L’Heureux and Pena led the way for North Smithfield with 13 points apiece, while Keenan had 12. “ didn’t do anything special, we just insisted we were going to do this, do that,” DeMeo said. That made the score 56-38 with just over two minutes to go, and DeMeo emptied his bench.
The Panthers, meanwhile, missed six of their final eight shots and turned the ball over eight times in the last eight minutes of the game.
Steve demeo free#
Peter Keenan hit a pair of free throws, Matt Walkow had a layup and L’Heureux scored on a baseline drive. They knock it down.”ĭeNoncour scored on Johnston’s next possession to get the team back within 12, but the Northmen kept the heat up. “I think maybe the big court, we got fatigued in the second half, and they’ve got some excellent shooters and we left them open,” DeMeo said. Once the dust had settled, Johnston’s deficit had steam-rolled from two points to 14, as it trailed 50-36 with 5:36 to play. For the game, Johnston turned it over 20 times and the Northmen scored 18 points on those miscues. They turned the ball over five consecutive times, and North Smithfield turned those into seven points. Even though it was only a seven-point game, the Panthers just couldn’t regain their footing. L’Heureux followed that up with a three, giving North Smithfield a 43-36 lead.įrom there, the rout was on. Johnston would never be that close again.Ĭody L’Heureux scored on the other end for the Northmen, and McKeon missed a jumper for Johnston. After another Northmen bucket by Breno Pena, Simone hit his three from the right wing and it was 38-36. With the Northmen holding a 36-31 lead, Alex DeNoncour knocked down a mid-range jumper. In the second half, North Smithfield threatened to pull away, but Johnston wouldn’t give in. We missed a few free throws, but ball movement and offensively, I thought we handled ourselves pretty good.” “The tempo, it was exactly what we wanted. “I thought we played a near-perfect half,” DeMeo said. They held the Northmen to just 39 percent shooting in the half, and went into the locker room trailing 28-27. Playing in front of a large crowd at Roger Williams University, the Panthers used stingy defense to take a four-point lead at the 13:29 mark. With that in mind, Johnston didn’t want its run to end against the Northmen. They said it wasn’t going to happen this year.” Last year, without the division tournament, we go into states and we get blown out by Shea. This is their team, and they won their first playoff game. “The seniors, especially the three co-captains. “I’m glad for the guys,” DeMeo said after the Toll Gate game. Ryan McKeon and Mark Breton each had 15 points in that game, and Simone had 14, including two big three-pointers down the stretch to ice the victory. The Panthers were coming in with plenty of confidence after grinding out a 58-55 victory over Toll Gate in the quarterfinals last Wednesday. We just insisted that we were going to pass the ball to the wrong people.” Not to take anything away from them, but I don’t think they turned up the heat. “Then we just kept turning the ball over. “The first half and then coming out, we did good,” Johnston head coach Steve DeMeo said. 5 seed statewide.Īnd Johnston had them on the ropes for three-quarters of the game. The top-seeded Northmen – who went 22-0 during the regular season – went on to beat East Greenwich in the D-III finals and are the No. The loss ended the fourth-seeded Panthers’ season, as they didn’t earn enough power points to qualify for the 16-team all-division state tournament. But North Smithfield didn’t let up, finishing the game on a 20-4 run to pull away and win 58-40. Johnston trailed by just one point at halftime and, when Steve Simone hit a three-pointer with 8:26 left, it trailed by just two. Last Friday, in the Division III semifinals, the Panthers almost did. North Smithfield still hasn’t lost this season, but that doesn’t give the Johnston boys’ basketball team any solace.
0 kommentar(er)
