Panthers ready to roll

The Johnston boys basketball team is preparing to host its Division III Quarterfinals game next week when it will square off against the winner of Friday’s Toll Gate-Central Falls preliminary matchup.

The Panthers have had one of their best seasons in the past decade, finishing 16-2 in league play and carrying a six-game win streak into the postseason. Johnston is the No. 2 seed heading into the tournament.

“Right now, we’re trying to get everyone back healthy. We’ve had kids out sick, we are just trying to get healthy. It’s tough with the (12-day) layoff since the kids just want to get into it. We’ll be OK, we’ll get our kids back for the most part. Once we know who we have on Friday night we’ll be ready for Tuesday,” said Johnston coach Ed Bedrosian.

Between getting healthy, as well as the emergence of some new faces, Bedrosian feels that the club is hitting its peak at the right time this winter.

“Jay Canton in the past four or five games has really turned up his game which has really helped us out on the boards. Derek Salvatore has stepped up as a freshman. We lost (Anthony) Tavares for a few games but he’s back so that’s nice. We have size, we have three good guards, we can go small or big depending on the opponent, we have that luxury to change the lineup around,” said Bedrosian, who believes defense will be the key to victory in the first round regardless of opponent. “We know both of them pretty well, but we can’t sleep on anyone in Division III this year, there’s a lot of parity so we’ll have to play the best we can. Especially on the defensive end, that’s what wins us games.”

The Panthers look forward to making some noise next week and trying to claim a Division III title, while also hoping to sneak into next month’s open state tournament.

“Obviously, we would like to win our Division title, but we also want to make the open state tournament … that has been a goal of ours from the beginning,” said Bedrosian. “We feel like we can do it, the last three games we have played very well. It’s all unselfishness, everyone is shooting the ball well, we’re a tough team to defend because we don’t rely on one guy. I told them to just play their game.”