Youth and experience came together Monday night for the Cranston East boys’ basketball team, as freshman Aireus Raspberry and senior Frankie Derisier combined for 20 points in the second half to lead the ’Bolts past rival Cranston West, 56-55.

The game came down to the final few seconds, but strong free throw shooting in the second half (11-of-13) and a 21-8 run out of the break helped propel East to victory at home.

“It means a lot to them,” East head coach John Smith said. “They take it personal. They want to win the game, plus West got the best of us earlier in the season [at the Hank Orabone Holiday Tournament]. It’s good to get the division win against them.”

West (1-8) was shorthanded without big man Brett Bucci, who was serving a team suspension after receiving his second technical foul of the year in the prior game. Dante Driscoll led the Falcons with 20 points and 10 rebounds, but no one else could find the hot hand.

“I told him he needed to step up big tonight,” West head coach John Macera said of Driscoll. “It hurt not having Brett in the lineup. He scored 20 points against them last time he played against them.”

Only three East (3-5) players had field goals in the second half, but it would be enough to help the ’Bolts jump on the Falcons following halftime. Raspberry came alive for the ’Bolts, giving them a 35-33 advantage early in the half with a jumper. He later made a spinning layup to extend the lead out to 7.

“We’re looking for him to be one of our leaders on the team,” Smith said of Raspberry. “So it’s good to get him going. He’s a natural scorer. So it’s good to see that.”

Sam Hanley and Derisier got in on the action, too. Hanley got an up-and-under to fall before his long pass down the length of the court for Derisier made for an easy lay-in and a 44-35 lead.

East looked like it may run away with the game late after Hanley’s layup put the ’Bolts ahead 48-37.

West started to chip away as East went cold from the field. Michael O’Neill converted on an and-1 opportunity to cut the deficit down to 8, while Driscoll sunk a pair of free throws to inch the Falcons closer.

West hung within seven for the next couple minutes before making its final push. Down 52-45 with 3:31 to go, Driscoll got a layup to go. Hanley made one free throw down the other end to push the lead back out to 53-47, but Andrew Albro answered for the Falcons with his only make from beyond the arc to cut it to a one-possession game.

“It shouldn’t have come to that,” Macera said of his team’s second-half comeback. “There are some times we try to play too much. We’re still trying to get into the team aspect. We can’t get caught up in the score and make it happen ourselves. They battled, we battled.”

West also shot well from the charity stripe, going 8-of-10 in the second half, and that success came in handy late. Driscoll went to the line and made both of his free throws to make it a 1-point game, and Joulien Martinelli knotted the score at 53 when he made the front end of a pair.

East had possession with 2:22 to go, and nearly drained a minute off the clock before pulling ahead. Derisier ultimately got to the line for a 1-and-1, and made both of the high-pressure shots. He would go to the stripe again with 20.7 seconds to go, making one of two tries to put East ahead 56-53.

“Those three guys have been playing real well,” Smith said of Hanley, Raspberry and Derisier. “Especially on defense. Trying to play defense without fouling. They did a good job with that.”

The Falcons held the ball for a final shot at forcing overtime. Albro got a highly contested look for a 3-pointer, but it got caught between the rim and the backboard for a jump ball. The Falcons kept possession and called timeout, but miscommunication cost them.

Instead of finding someone in 3-point land, the ball was inbounded to Sam Franco under the net, who missed his initial attempt but made another as the buzzer sounded.

“It’s not how we designed it, that’s for sure,” Macera said. “They made a mistake, what are you going to do. We designed it to have a 3 at the top and a return if Andrew was covered in the corner for Sammy [Franco]. I think they just got caught up in it, and they didn’t realize what they had. They’re kids, they’re going to make a mistake.”

In the first half, East had 3-point shooting to thank for hanging with the Falcons early on. Neither side could get much to fall in the early going, but Franco was able to put West in front 12-8 with about seven minutes to go in the first half.

Janzel Liberata then nailed a corner shot from beyond the arc to make it 12-11. After an O’Neill layup put West ahead 14-11, Liberata again locked in from the corner to tie the game. On the next possession, he would sink his third consecutive long-distance attempt to give the ’Bolts a slim, 17-16 advantage.

Ryan Bruce and Isaiah Hinds followed Liberata’s performance with 3-pointers of their own, putting East up 23-20. East couldn’t find much nylon from inside the 3-point arc, which is where West was best. Connor Kiernan, Driscoll and Albro each made shots in the paint before Matt Lonardo’s free throw gave the Falcons a 29-27 lead going into the half.

“In the first half, we did a pretty good job of distributing the basketball,” Macera said. “We had the lead. In the second half we went back to some of our old habits, bad habits.”

East had a 7 p.m. matchup scheduled at La Salle (6-1) Tuesday night, but results were unavailable at press time. The ’Bolts will also host Coventry (1-6) on Friday night at 7 p.m.

“We got a tough road ahead,” Smith said. “We’re still very much in it, as far as the division playoffs. We got a couple more wins, should be looking good, and then once you get into the playoffs, anything can happen.”

West also had a Tuesday game, at North Kingstown at 7 p.m., but results were unavailable at press time. The Falcons welcome West Warwick on Friday at 7 p.m.

“We still got a lot of basketball left,” Macera said. “Still a lot of basketball left, that’s how we got to look at it. Try to keep them up, still a lot of games left to play.”

Editor's note: this story was changed to reflect that Cranston West's Brett Bucci did not receive two technical fouls in one game, but had a culmination of two throughout the season that resulted in the team suspension.