Panthers advance

The Johnston boys basketball team would run away with a 61-51 Division II Quarterfinal win over Rogers on Tuesday night to advance to this weekend’s semifinals against unbeaten, top-seeded Lincoln.
The Panthers led the entire game until Rogers would hit a shot to take its first lead, 46-45, with 6:00 remaining in the fourth quarter. Johnston would call a timeout shortly after and roll from there to grab the victory.
Senior Neari Vasquez put on a show in the fourth quarter, scoring 12 of his team-leading 19 points in the final frame, including hitting two big 3-pointers.
“Coach Mark Livingston told us to stay together. We have been through this before, we’ve been through tough times when we have been down but we always stick together and come back. That was my time, and when we broke the huddle he said, ‘This is where you shine,’ and I said, ‘yes sir.’ I just went out there and got buckets, I was in kill mode,” said Vasquez, who was excited to show off hit shooting ability as the team’s top forward. “It’s a big part of my game and once I hit one, I started feeling it and started shooting it more. It’s a big part of my game and finishing.”
Branden Testa added 17 points in the win while Jayden Testa scored 10 to reach double figures. Michael Carlino also came up clutch, scoring all five of his points in the fourth quarter to help propel the offense as well.
The team’s championship defense will continue against the high-flying Lions, who beat Cranston West in the quarters on Tuesday as well. Although the Panthers will enter the matchup as the underdog, Vasquez is confident that the team’s championship mettle will help guide them against Lincoln.
“We’re not new to this. We always stay together, we always battle back. We weren’t panicking with 5:30 left, that’s a lot of time. We just needed to run our sets, hit some buckets and stay locked in,” said Vasquez. “Lincoln’s a very tough team with great players, all five players are great. We can give them a great fight, we were beating them until the fourth quarter the last time we played. We know how they play, they know how we play. We just need to stay locked in.”