On paper, Tuesday’s girls’ basketball game between Johnston and St. Raphael shaped up as a marquee battle between contenders. The Saints, who came in at 9-0, certainly viewed it that way.
“They beat us last year and we remembered,” said St. Raphael coach Frederick Lashley-Saunders. “Our team was really geared up to come in here today.”
The way things have been going lately, the Panthers were inclined to be a little more cautious.
Unfortunately for them, that inclination was spot-on.
Despite coming in with a 7-1 league record, the Panthers feel they’ve been off their game, and it caught up to them Tuesday. The Saints used high-pressure defense to force 21 first-half turnovers then pulled away after Johnston made a brief run in the second half, cruising to a 60-37 victory.
The Saints improved to 10-0 while Johnston dropped to 7-2.
“We’re going through a tough time right now,” said Johnston head coach Chris Corsinetti. “We anticipated St. Raphael was going to be amped for us. We beat them last year at the buzzer. We knew they would be ready to go and we didn’t withstand the intensity they came in here with. They came in with high intensity, a lot of energy and we didn’t answer the bell.”
The Panthers started league play with six straight wins but have now lost two of three. Moses Brown handed them their first defeat last week. Johnston beat 2-8 Pilgrim on Friday, but that didn’t really get them back on track.
“We haven’t been playing very well, to be quite honest,” Corsinetti said. “We played West Warwick in a non-league game and we played Moses Brown in a league game. We gave up 61 points in both games and we lost both. Our defense has been nothing short of deplorable.”
On Tuesday, the Panthers got out to a good start, with junior Karina Mattera burying a pair of three-pointers in the first 1:18 of the game.
But it was all downhill from there.
The Panthers went almost 10 minutes without scoring a point – and often without getting the ball over half-court. They committed 18 turnovers in the first 12 minutes of the game.
St. Raphael took advantage, putting together a 14-0 run to take control. Six of the points came off turnovers.
“We knew we weren’t going to press for long because of our depth, but we figured if we could just come out fast and set the defensive tone, we would be in a good position,” Lashley-Saunders said. “I think that really did set the tone.”
Dana Desmarais ended the drought with a three-point play, followed by a short jumper on Johnston’s next trip. Jenna Pizzi hit a three later in the final minute, but the Saints still went to halftime leading 25-17.
The Panthers made only six field goals in the first half. They took 22 shots, only one more than the 21 turnovers.
“We just weren’t prepared to play the game,” Corsinetti said. “We knew the pressure was going to come. We just weren’t prepared.”
All things considered, the eight-point deficit wasn’t that bad. It grew to 11 early in the second half, but the Panthers trimmed it back to five with a 6-0 run. Isabella DiRaimo had four points on fast-break runners and Francesca Gaudiana hit a layup, making it 28-23. After the lead went back to nine, Alex DiRaimo converted a three-point play to make it 32-26 with 11:43 left.
And then it all fell apart again for the Panthers.
They went five minutes without a basket, missing seven straight shots and committing two turnovers in that span. And the Saints – who hadn’t completely pulled away in Johnston’s first-half drought – took full advantage of this one. A putback by Danyele Gonzales with 10:43 left touched off a 24-3 run that put the game completely out of reach.
Saints senior Rybecca Gonzalez did much of the damage with nine points in the surge, including a three-pointer. She finished with a game-high 24 and added 17 rebounds for the double-double.
“She’s playing with the flu right now so I was really impressed with how she played tonight,” Lashley-Saunders said. “She had a career-high 17 rebounds and she was all over the place. She wanted it. She’s our senior captain, and right now, she’s our go-to girl. She came ready to go.”
Johnston never got closer than 22 as the Saints coasted to the victory. Danyele Gonzales chipped in 10 points, with Felicia Baccari and Lauren Taylor scoring eight each.
Mattera led the Panthers with 13. Isabella DiRaimo scored eight, while Desmarais and Gaudiana had five apiece.
Corsinetti hopes the loss cements the idea that things need to change.
“I hope they understand that if they want to contend for a state championship, those are the caliber of teams we’re going to be playing against,” he said. “We can tell them, but they’ve got to figure it out for themselves.”
Johnston will hit the road Friday to take on winless Mt. Pleasant at 7 p.m.
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