Middletown Boys Edge Prout 45-44 in JV Basketball Tournament

NARRAGANSETT – junior varsity boys basketball team edged out Prout School Sunday afternoon in a special JV tournament at Narragansett High School.

Middletown's boys were part of the third place game of the tournament. They held off a late surge by Prout to win 45-44.

Middletown led 45-43 with seven seconds remaining, when Jacob Reilly accidentally fouled Casey Farell about 35 feet from the basket.

With a chance to tie, Farell calmly sank the first shot. However, Middletown called timeout, and the icing seemed to work, as Farell missed the second shot.

In a bit of bad luck for the Crusaders, they had mostly avoided fouling in the second half. After the missed free throw, Prout gave a foul, but Middletown wasn’t in the bonus yet. As a result, the Islanders inbounded the ball with a second left and were able to dribble the clock out.

Connor Russ and Jake Lyman both had 15 points for the Islanders. Jack Lambrecht had 15 for Prout, followed by Farell with 13. 

The junior varsity tournament was the second annual, and started a sort of family tradition. Narragansett High School senior and varsity basketball member Patrick Doyle organized it as his senior project, following in the footsteps of Billy Byrne .

Doyle said he consulted a bit with Billy – and his mom – before doing his own tournament this year.

“I started planning in September with [NHS head coach David] Gee, my mentor,” Doyle said, adding that he spent a night with Gee and a night with the Byrnes, picking their brains for what worked and what didn’t the year before.

“Billy helped me a lot, and Mrs. Byrne,” Doyle said.

The hardest part was actually lining up all the various volunteers, Doyle said. For the most part, it was boys’ varsity basketball players volunteering – Francis Castrovillari, Matt and Jeff Pistachio, Jarred Whalen, Patrick Degnan – with Chelsea Sahagian and Jordan Cameron of the girls’ team running the concession stand.

Admission for the tournament was $4 for adults, and $2 for children and students. Proceeds benefited the boys’ basketball program.

Doyle added that he was happy with how the tournament ran, and with the result.

NOTES

• All tournament games featured two 20-minute halves with running clock, meaning, no clock stoppage on whistles. However, the final two minutes of each half, the clock was stopped on any whistle or out of bounds play. (This is a common format for charity or informal tournaments.)
• In the opening round, Narragansett beat Prout 61-36 to advance to the finals. North Kingstown beat Middletown 57-22.