Eastbayri.com

BRISTOL — Clearly in the league championship tournament, the Mt. Hope High School girls’ basketball team picked up an important late-season victory Wednesday night, Feb. 15, at home as the Huskies throttled visiting Cranston East, 62-41, in a Division II-South encounter.

Mt. Hope improved to 9-7 in the league standings and earned a season split with the Thunderbolts, who dropped to 8-7 with the loss and who had beaten the Huskies, 52-48, a month ago in Cranston.

Christie Ribeiro once again had a sound offensive night for the locals, leading Mt. Hope with 18 points. Lauren Fletcher had nine and Crystal Leitao eight. Sam Fletcher, Emma Pattie and Caroline Murphy each had six. Marissa Silva chipped in four, Rhys Webb three and Alex Hill a pair.

“We needed this win tonight,” said Mt. Hope head coach Mike Almeida. “At worst, we finish at 9-9 and it gives us a split with another team. It was an important game.”

The Huskies, Thunderbolts and East Greenwich each have seven losses and reside in the middle of the pack behind both 14-1 Narragansett and Rogers. Prout, which swept the locals, currently sits between the groups with a 9-6 mark.

Mt. Hope has split with Cranston East and West Warwick (7-8). The locals, who defeated East Greenwich the first time they played, meet up with the Avengers again Friday night, Feb. 17, on the road at 7 o’clock.

A win over E.G., which would be their 10th, likely puts the Huskies in prime position to finish among the top four teams in II-South and likely earn them a home game in the opening round of the D-II tourney.

“Of course we’d like to win our last two games, but we could use at least one more to get to 10,” said Almeida, whose team ends its regular season at home, Feb. 24, against Narragansett. “The goal is to get to 10-8 and get the third or fourth spot so we get a home playoff game.”

The Huskies played like a focused, hungry group Wednesday. Mt. Hope struggled to contain Cranston’s 1-2 punch of Emely Ramirez and Kelsy Evje early, but made a defensive switch that turned the tide in its favor.

“We started in a box-and-one on Ramirez then we changed to a triangle-and-two on her and Evje. We stayed with that most of the night and I thought it was the difference,” said Almeida. “Lauren did a nice job on Evje and Emma and Marissa took turns on Ramirez. And I also thought we controlled the backboards. I thought Sam and Crystal did a great job rebounding tonight.”

The score remained tied through nine-apiece, Leitao leveling for the locals with a 15-foot jumper. The senior co-captain’s bucket actually began Mt. Hope’s go-ahead spurt. The Huskies went from 9-7 down to 24-15 up over a span of six minutes in the middle of the stanza.

Emma Pattie followed Leitao’s hoop with two free throws that put the locals in front to stay. Silva came off the bench to contribute a couple of baskets in the spree. And at one juncture Ribeiro netted five points in a row. Ramirez, quieted after a strong start, closed the half with six points in a row for the ‘Bolts, bringing her side to within six (30-24) at the break.

Mt. Hope’s defensive intensity, there pretty much all night, was matched by some hot shooting in the second half.

After Evje drained a 3-pointer for East to start the period, the Huskies caught fire from the field. The hosts blitzed their guests with a 15-0 run, started and ended by Lauren Fletcher jumpers. In between, Sam Fletcher hit two mid-range shots in the paint and Ribeiro scored seven in a row, including a deep 3 from the top of the key.

Evje (12 points, four 3s) didn't score the rest of the night and Ramirez, who had 13 in the first half, finished with just seven more in the second for a total of 20.

Up 18 with seven minutes gone by, Mt. Hope pretty much cruised the rest of the way. The Huskies’ lead climbed over 20 for the first time when Ribeiro converted a steal into a layup to make the score 54-33. The locals’ other senior co-captain later drove to the hoop for another from close range to make the score 56-34, which turned out to be the largest margin of the night with just about four minutes remaining.

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