DiRaimo’s 30 points leads Panthers past Spartans

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It was a very productive week for the Johnston High School girls’ basketball team, as they posted three double-digit Division II-North wins over North Providence, Ponaganset and Scituate, improving their league record to 7-1. The wins setup a showdown with their next opponent, the unbeaten Saint Raphael Academy Lady Saints for first place.

Johnston capped off its successful week with a convincing 69-51 home win last Friday night over the Lady Spartans of Scituate High School, who fall to 4-4 in the North subdivision. Johnston senior guard Isabella DiRaimo led her team to victory by pouring in a game-high 30 points, 19 of them coming in the first half.

“Right now, Isabella is on top of her game,” said Johnston head coach Chris Corsinetti. “She is playing defense well and doing everything else very good, including rebounding.”

The Panthers’ defense did a great job forcing 26 Spartan turnovers, 16 of them in the first half, while the Panthers’

offense committed just nine turnovers in the game.

“We were making lazy passes and we were not doing what we were supposed to be doing - protecting the ball,” said Scituate head coach Stacy D’Allesandro. “We just did not perform defensively like we needed to. We have to continue working and work more as a unit, right now we are working as players. Our kids are working hard; we just have a long way up. Chris has a really nice team and they played great defense and we did not perform well on either end. It did not help that we were down one post player as well.”

It was the other star guard, Karina Mattera, which got Johnston off to a good start. Her jumper gave her team an early 16-11 lead and her lay-in at the 5:36 mark of the first half increased their lead to 28-21. DiRaimo proceeded to hit three consecutive three-point shots that opened up a comfortable cushion, 37-23. Shay Young’s bucket with only a few seconds to go in the first half made it a 17-point Panther lead, but Scituate’s Sadie Ross gave her team some hope with a basket as time expired in the half, as Johnston took a 42-27 advantage into the break. Ross was the high-scorer for the Spartans with 18 points in the game. She was playing in just her second game back after an injury and was working her way back into her usual form.

DiRaimo continued to shine in the second half for the Panthers. In the first minute of play, she hit Mattera down-court with a nice pass for an uncontested lay up. She then went coast-to-coast to give Johnston a 50-29 lead. Dana Desmarais, who chipped in with eight points for the Panthers, hit a three that opened up a 22-point lead and Mattera’s steal and lay-in all but sealed the Panther win, their 10th overall on the year.

Mattera would finish with 20 points in the game, even though she was a little bit under the weather.

“Karina was sick for a few days and for her to come out and play that well is remarkable considering she was ill,” Corsinetti said.

Corsinetti was very pleased with his team’s defense.

“I thought we did a great job defensively and I thought Kristina DiMascio did a great job defending Sadie Ross,” Corsinetti said. “Kristina has been playing well as of late so we gave her the start tonight and she did not disappoint us. It’s a great team effort, rebounding and pushing the ball up the court. Our game plan was to get as many shots as we could and tire Scituate out a little bit and I think we accomplished that – and I was excited the way our guards played. It was a busy week with three games and three wins and I could not be any happier.”

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