After flying high against the Mt. Pleasant Kilties last Tuesday, the Cranston East Thunderbolts came back down to earth. Cranston East lost to Mt. Hope on the road by a decisive 53-39 margin on Thursday. The game was a 17-17 toss-up at halftime, but Cranston East was outscored by Mt. Hope in the second.
Cranston East lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Mya Jiminez, who scored 21 points. That was a full 53.8% of Cranston East's points, marking the ninth time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Jayna Gunderway, who scored ten points.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Mt. Hope to victory, but perhaps none more so than Emily Moran, who dropped a double-double on 15 points and 17 rebounds. Moran is on a roll when it comes to rebounds, as she's now pulled down eight or more in the last seven games she's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Lilly DaSilveira, who dropped a double-double on 17 points and 14 rebounds.
Cranston East bumped their record down to 2-7 with that loss, which was their seventh straight on the road dating back to last season. As for Mt. Hope, their win bumped their record up to 5-6.
Cranston East will be playing at home against Tiverton at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. The matchup should be an exciting one, as these teams are ranked near one another in Rhode Island (Tiverton is ranked 43rd, while Cranston East is ranked 41st). Mt. Hope won't have much time to rest: their next contest is against Somerset Berkley Regional at 5:00 p.m. on January 12th.
