Pilgrim hands Johnston second consecutive loss

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Pilgrim knew it had a size advantage in Tuesday’s boys’ basketball game with Johnston.

And the Patriots sure used it.

Ryan Morris had 25 points and 14 rebounds, Letrelle Johnson added 11 rebounds and Pilgrim scored 36 of their 60 points in the paint en route to a surprisingly easy 60-34 win over the Panthers.

The victory continued a strong stretch for the Pats, who won for the fourth time in five games and jumped over .500 at 4-3. The loss was the second in a row for the Panthers, who fell to 3-4, and it left them wondering what had gone wrong in what amounted to their worst performance of the season.

“The intensity wasn’t there, and that’s my fault,” said Johnston head coach Steve DeMeo. “I don’t know what happened. This is the first time. I don’t remember the last time we came out like this. I have no idea what it was.”

Johnston had won two in a row before a 59-50 loss to Warwick Vets on Friday. On Tuesday, the negatives were far more pronounced. Johnston got man-handled on the glass and couldn’t make up for it at the other end, shooting just 33-percent from the field.

“I thought our defense was good tonight and we’ve been improving little by little every game,” said Pilgrim head coach Mike Batalon. “All our guys were hitting the glass and working hard on defense. I think we’re coming together. The league is really wide open and we’re right in the thick of things.”

The win moved Pilgrim into a tie with Warwick Vets for first place in Division III-Central. Since a loss to Vets on Jan. 7, the Pats have been playing their best basketball of the season. Unbeaten Middletown handed the Pats their only loss since that Vets game.

“We’re starting to click,” said Morris, a senior center. “Our guards are hitting their shots, we’re not turning the ball over. We’re definitely at the turning point in the season. We want to keep it rolling this week.”

The Pats certainly kept it rolling against Johnston. Morris and Johnson scored the team’s first 10 points, with all 10 coming in the paint and six coming on second chances.

It was a sign of things to come. The Patriots dominated the glass with 20 offensive rebounds. Morris, Johnson, Brendan Rix and Elijah Dressel did the heavy lifting.

“We really tried to pound it inside and pound the glass tonight and we did a really good job,” Batalon said.

Johnston had no answer.

“They just absolutely killed us on the boards,” DeMeo said. “We talked in every timeout about boxing out and we just did absolutely nothing. But credit to them too. Morris was a beast tonight. We were allowing him to get second and third shots and [Johnson] kept sneaking in there and getting rebounds too. You can’t let that happen.”

The Pats used a 7-0 run midway through the first half to take control. Chris Duchesneau scored on a pair of drives to the hoop and Blake Doelling buried a three. After a brief drought, Morris converted a three-point play and Duchesneau hit a free throw to make it 21-14.

Then, leading by six at the one-minute mark, the Pats surged into the break. Dressel scored on a follow with 57 seconds left and Morris did the same 30 seconds later. After a Johnston bucket, Doelling hit a three in the final seconds to put Pilgrim up 28-17 at halftime.

It was more of the same in the second half, even when Johnston made a brief push. After Morris extended to 13, the Panthers got a three-pointer from Zach Coro, a bucket inside from Eddie Gallucci and a short jumper from Larry Dureault for a quick 7-0 run that trimmed the deficit to six.

But Pilgrim had an answer.

Duchesneau went strong to the hoop for two on Pilgrim’s next trip and Morris made one of two free throws after getting fouled the next time down. Mark Breton scored in the post for Johnston to get it back to seven, but the Pats dominated the next five minutes. Two baskets in the post from Morris and two free throws from Duchesneau started a 15-2 run that essentially put the game away. Morris had 11 points in that stretch, including a three-point play that sent the home crowd into a frenzy.

“Ryan’s obviously a focal point for us every game,” Batalon said. “He’s doing a great job. He’s talking on defense and he’s very aggressive on offense. He’s been our leader all year.”

After the 15-2 run, Doelling buried another three to push the lead to 21. Johnston never got closer than 20 the rest of the way. Pilgrim out-scored the Panthers 32-17 after halftime.

“We want to play 32 minutes,” Batalon said. “Some days, we’ve only played well in stretches. Tonight, I feel like we really put it together for the whole game.”

Morris’s 25 points led the way for the Pats. Duchesneau and Doelling added nine each, while Johnson and Dressel scored six apiece. Ryan McKeon led Johnston with seven.

The Panthers – who have lit it up from outside in many of their games this season – made only one three-pointer. Worse, they didn’t do anything to minimize those struggles.

“I said at halftime, ‘We’re not shooting the ball well, so you’ve got to make up for it with defense and rebounding,’” DeMeo said. “We didn’t do it. There were a few nights at the beginning of the year where everything we threw up went in. In retrospect that was probably a bad thing because then they think that’s the way it is. When you have a night like this, you’ve got to come up with something else.”

The Panthers were scheduled to play a non-league game against Shea on Wednesday. They’ll visit Toll Gate on Friday at 7 p.m.

“We’ve just got to persevere,” DeMeo said. “We’ll work twice as hard Thursday to get ready for Toll Gate on Friday. We’re right there, in the pack. It’s just who shows up.”

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