Knights hold off QCC in 76-70 win

By RYAN D. MURRAY
Posted 12/20/18

By RYAN D. MURRAY The CCRI Knights men's basketball team survived the Quinsigamond Community College Wyverns 76-70 on Saturday afternoon at the Vincent A. Cullen Field House at the Knight Campus in Warwick. Sophomore Peter Wilson, a St. Raphael Academy

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Knights hold off QCC in 76-70 win

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The CCRI Knights men’s basketball team survived the Quinsigamond Community College Wyverns 76-70 on Saturday afternoon at the Vincent A. Cullen Field House at the Knight Campus in Warwick.

Sophomore Peter Wilson, a St. Raphael Academy graduate, led the Knights with 16 points and Johnston High School alma mater Dylan Durante followed with 15. Other key contributors for CCRI were Franklin Udeh, out of Boston, who finished with 11 points and seven rebounds, and J.C. Santos, an East Providence High School alum, who added seven points and 11 assists.

The Wyverns had four players score in double figures with Victor Florentino with 17, Dana Mordi 15, Richard Gomez 11 and Joshua Falero 10.

Quinsigamond jumped out to an early 4-0 lead on back-to-back baskets from Falero. Then CCRI pulled within one when Pilgrim alum and wingman David Cabeceiras scored a put back and one.

Florentino followed that with a 3-pointer before assisting to Gomez for a layup, which put the Wyverns up 9-3.

CCRI would storm back and even the score at 11 when Cabeceiras buried two shots from downtown with just over 14 minutes remaining in the first half.

The two clubs would battle back-and-forth thereafter, deadlocking at 17 and 21 before the Wyverns went on a 9-0 run and built a 30-21 advantage on a pair of treys from Florentino and Mordi, plus three free throws from Florentino with 4:53 left in the frame.

That’s when CCRI brought in its 3-point assassin in Durante, who swooshed two of his five shots from beyond the arc and helped the Knights close the half on a 12-4 run that saw them get the score to 40-38 going into the break.

“He was unbelievable,” CCRI head coach Rick Harris said. “We needed that spark because we weren’t able to find offense for whatever reason. We were thinking too much. He was vital for us.”

“That seemed to pick us up,” Harris continued. “I thought the defense was much better in the second half. Much more active. We got them to be a little bit uncomfortable and take some shots that they weren’t comfortable taking. We ran multiple defenses and managed to keep them off balance.”

Six minutes into the second half, CCRI went on a 13-0 surge that provided them a 57-47 cushion.

The Wyverns were able to get within 61-59 with 7:08 left, but with three minutes to play, Warwick used a 6-0 run, headed by four points from Gomez, and a layup from Wilson, which built the Knights a 71-63 edge with 2:32 remaining.

CCRI improved to 11-3 on the season with the win.

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