Smithfield is one of the most balanced teams in the state, with offensive threats in the frontcourt and the backcourt that are equally as impressive on the defensive end.

The Sentinels showed why they’re currently one of the top three teams in Division I on Thursday night, rolling to a 66-50 over Cranston East.

The ‘Bolts, who were looking to move back to .500 against Smithfield, failed to do just that, as Smithfield built itself a 16-point lead heading into halftime.

East never led in the game, with Smithfield putting on its full-court press early and forcing eight turnovers in the opening half.

The Sentinels built a 28-10 lead with four minutes to play, before senior point guard Jessy Taveras splashed a transition 3 to cut East’s deficit to 15.

‘Bolts’ guard Djibril Cissoko scored the final bucket of the first half, hitting a runner off the glass to make it a 35-19 game heading into the locker room.

Smithfield juniors Steve Aiello and Lorenzo Fernandes had a field day in the first half, combining for 19 points.

Aiello, arguably Smithfield’s best shooter, was left open time after time, while Fernandes dominated down low, converting layups – many of which were uncontested.

“They’re a very good team to begin with and we can’t play defense like we played tonight against a team like that,” East head coach John Smith said. “We gave up way too many easy layups. Our interior defense was not good tonight.”

Smith was confident that it wasn’t because of a lack of effort from his frontcourt, however.

“I don’t think it was a compete thing,” Smith said. “I think that it’s more of a communication thing – I’ve been trying to get them to talk more. It’s something that we definitely have to work on.”

East was led, as it has been all season, by Taveras.

Taveras scored a team-high eight points in the first half and exploded for 17 second-half points to finish with a game-high 25 points.

But as East demonstrated on Thursday night, one player can’t win a game by himself.

“We need to get other guys to step up offensively,” Smith said. “But it really came down to our defense – you’re not going to win any games playing like that.”

Fernandes continued to haunt the ‘Bolts in the paint in the second half, nearly matching Taveras with 16 points.

The forward finished the game with a team-high 24 points and seven boards.

Thanks in large part to Taveras, East’s offense got going in the second half, scoring 31 points.

Unfortunately, its defense still couldn’t get a stop, surrendering 31 points over the final 16 minutes.

East finished the game with 15 turnovers in the losing effort.

Besides Taveras’ 25, the second-highest scorer on East was James Kirwin, with seven points.

Smithfield had three scorers in double-figures. Aiello netted 18 points, while Nathan Patenaude scored 10 and pulled down eight rebounds in addition to Fernandes’ 24 and seven.

East, who is currently in 11th place in Division I, is right on the edge of making the playoffs.

The ‘Bolts’ tough stretch continued on Monday, as they fell to La Salle, 64-61, to fall to 6-9 in the standings.

The top 12 teams in D-I will make the division tournament, but East still hasn’t mathematically clinched, sitting a game and a half ahead of 13th-place South Kingstown. East has just one game remaining, while South Kingstown has two.

The ‘Bolts’ final regular season game was at home against Hendricken on Tuesday night, but results were unavailable at press time.

Smith knew that his final game wouldn’t be an easy one.

“One good thing is that the game is at home,” Smith said. “We’re going to get back to work on our defense and spend all of tomorrow’s practice working on our defense.”

If East can make it into the playoffs, it can make some noise with Taveras at the point, but it has to look to its defense to be much better than it was against Smithfield.