In the initial Mount Saint Charles Summer Basketball League season, Johnston High School posted an impressive 8-2 record, good enough for a tie with Cumberland for second place in the regular season.
Johnston would go on to defeat Cumberland, 62-49, on August 5 to earn a spot in the finals against a Lincoln High School team that finished 6-4 in the regular season. Johnston beat Lincoln twice last month by scores of 43-37 and 42-37, but everyone says it is difficult to beat a team three times in one season and that held true last Sunday night in Woonsocket, as Lincoln proved to be too much for the Panthers, beating them 53-38 to become the 2015 Mount Saint Charles Summer league champion.
Lincoln, which never trailed in the game, jumped out to an early 20-12 lead and would build a 30-13 halftime advantage. Johnston’s Ryan Yankee would score eight of those 13 first-half points, but would pick up his third foul with 3:30 left to go in the half and would be forced to the bench for the remainder of the first half.
With their top scorer and leader out, the Panthers struggled to put points on the board and the Lions took control of the game down in the low post.
“Lincoln had a big advantage on the boards even though we showed more spunk,” said Johnston coach Steve DeMeo. “The difference in the game was the board play, Lincoln converted on their second and third chances. Our spirit was there, we just physically could not jump with them.”
As the second half opened up, Johnston went on an 11-2 run, closing the gap to 32-24. Nassir Vasquez would spark the Panthers with 13 second-half points and would finish as his team’s high scorer with 15 points.
Yankee scored 13 in the game as the two combined for 28 of Johnston’s 38 points.
A similar situation occurred in last season’s RIIL Division III final with Pilgrim, as Yankee got into foul trouble and the Panthers struggled to score without him as Pilgrim captured its first championship in school history.
“Ryan Yankee is one of the best players in the state,” DeMeo said. “He is our go-to guy and he wants the ball at the end of the game. We rely on not just his scoring but his leadership as well.”
“We had two of our starters that were late to the game and we sent a message to them by sitting them out the first half and starting them the second half, so maybe that had something to do with that early run,” said Johnston coach Mark Livingston.
After a timeout, Lincoln would continue to dominate the glass and shoot well and never let the Panthers get closer than eight points.
Livingston remained optimistic about this Panthers’ team saying, “We have a young team but we have to move the ball better offensively, we will come together by the time the regular season comes around…We have two freshman on the team and this summer league is a good experience for them when it comes time to play varsity.”
Johnston would get a win on Tuesday night, though, with a 55-52 overtime victory over Central High School in the Providence High School League playoffs.
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