SPORTS

Titans roll to 5-0

Posted 1/5/22

By RYAN D. MURRAY The Lady Titans trailed much of Monday night but fought back and defeated the Lincoln Lions 36-33 during a Girls Division III Basketball battle of unbeaten teams at Toll Gate High School. Brianlys "Briana" Simono, a junior guard and

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SPORTS

Titans roll to 5-0

Posted

By RYAN D. MURRAY The Lady Titans trailed much of Monday night but fought back and defeated the Lincoln Lions 36-33 during a Girls Division III Basketball battle of unbeaten teams at Toll Gate High School.

Brianlys “Briana” Simono, a junior guard and transfer from Woonsocket, topped Toll Gate with 12 points.

“Briana has been just so quick on the floor,” Lady Titans head coach Owen Paquet said. “She’s really showing that she’s a nice addition here to the Toll Gate basketball team, with her willingness to do whatever the team asks her to do - guard the best person, take the last shot, take over the point guard role … she’s really a team player. She has such speed and quickness. It’s nice to see her get involved with the basketball team so quickly within such a short time.”

Adeline Areson, a sophomore, and Sydnee Perreault, a junior, finished second in scoring for Toll Gate with eight points each.

Lincoln, too, led a balanced attack with junior Makayla Horan, senior Elliana Wu, and sophomore Tayla Valentin each scoring eight points apiece.

Lincoln got the scoring started when Taylor Stande sank a 3-pointer.

Simono answered with a layup and got Toll Gate within 3-2.

Stande buried another trey after that and upped the Lions margin to 6-2.

Toll Gate turned the ball over during its ensuing possession, but Simono made up for it when she stole the ball and assisted ahead to Perreault for a breakaway layup and pulled the Lady Titans within two.

Next, Perreault buried a jump-shot and evened the score at 6.

Lincoln, though, would close the quarter on a 6-2 run and held a 12-8 lead after one frame.  

The Lions were able to maintain that advantage for much of the second quarter as well and led 20-16 as the teams headed for halftime.

Horan sank a jump-shot at the start of the third frame and increased the Lions lead to six.

Nonetheless, with 2:36 remaining in the quarter, Toll Gate grabbed its first lead at 25-24 after Areson scored with a put back.

Wu made a free throw after that and evened the game at 25, and that’s where the squads stood after three periods.

Wu passed to Aisha Sarr, a senior forward, and she made the first bucket of the fourth frame and put Lincoln up two.

Next, Simono answered with a 3ball and gave the Lady Titans a 28-27 edge.

Lincoln evened the score at 28 with just under six minutes to play, when Wu made a free throw.

Then, Emma Brunelle scored with a put back for the Lions before Lola Olink made a pair of free throws for Toll Gate and deadlocked the score at 30 all.

“Lola played a really nice game,” Paquet said. “She had some nice rebounds for us. She’s really stepping up as a sophomore. She’s still filling into her own shoes and if she keeps going like this, she’s going to be a big, big part of this team.”

Toll Gate went up 32-30 with 3:05 left after Simono earned a steal near mid-court and dribbled in for a breakaway layup.

Wu answered with a corner trey and it put the Lions up by one, but Amanda Preston responded with a hook shot for Toll Gate, and it gave the Lady Titans a 34-33 margin.

Preston finished with five points.

“Amanda really stepped up, playing great defense,” Paquet said. “She had a big bucket, a post-move down low with like less than two minutes to go. That was a major basket that we needed right there.”

Areson made a steal after that and Toll Gate was able to tick the clock down to 1:20, but the Lady Titans came up empty on that trip despite multiple shot opportunities.

It was Toll Gate’s ferocious defense that smothered the Lions for most of the final frame and it forced yet another Lincoln turnover during its next possession.

Therefore, Horan resulted in intentionally fouling Areson following an inbound pass with 25.5 seconds to play.

Areson missed the free throw, but grabbed her own rebound and was fouled by Horan again six seconds later.

“Her nerves got the best of her on the first one, but her athleticism, and her drive and will, just to go get her miss was unbelievable.”

This time, Areson made both free throws and gave the Lady Titans a 36-33 cushion, and that is how it would end.

With the win, Toll Gate improves to 5-0 in the division.

The Lady Titans battled all night and Areson was proud after helping her team to another win.

“It feels really good,” Areson said. “This team works very hard at practice and I really think we deserve the 5-0 record we have right now.”

Areson believes the addition of Simono has helped Toll Gate tremendously in opening up its offense and the junior thinks the team should go deep into the postseason.

“I think we’ll go pretty far,” Areson said. “Ever since we got Bri from Woonsocket, we’ve definitely gotten a lot better at shooting and moving the ball. So, I think we’ll do pretty well.”

Toll Gate will have a busy week though, playing three games in five days. The Lady Titans played again on Wednesday night at the Lincoln School in Providence, but the score was unavailable at press time. Toll Gate will play their third game of the week on Friday at home against Middletown at 6 p.m.

Coach Paquet, like many coaches, likes to take it game by game, but it’s hard not to look ahead after the way the team has been performing.

“One game at a time,” Paquet said. “Starting off 5-0 in the league is great. Lincoln played a hard game. It’s always a hard team to beat. And with the presence of this team and the basketball IQ that we have, anything’s possible. With Covid-19 issues and whatnot, we’re just glad to keep on playing as hard as we possibly can. With three games in one week, this week, it’s going to be a lot, so we’ll just take it one game at a time. And we always shoot for the playoffs and try to go as far as possible.”

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