The No. 3 ranked Cranston East Thunderbolts were walloped by the No. 2 ranked North Kingstown Skippers 86-49 on Saturday night during the Boys Basketball State Semifinal at the Ryan Center in Kingston.

North Kingstown junior guard Nick Sacchetti scored a game-high 20 points while Ben Masse, a senior forward, added 18.  Clay Brochu, a junior guard, tallied 17 while senior center Nick Quarella finished with 12. 

Senior Nelvin Blanco topped East with 13 points, and Aireus Raspberry, a senior forward, added 10.

“They shot the ball very well from outside,” East head coach Isaiah McDaniel said. “We struggled tonight from outside shooting the ball. We struggled just to get the ball in the basket period. They hit six 3’s in the first half and I think that kind of gave them the jumpstart.”

North Kingstown junior Nick Sacchetti started things off with a 3-pointer before East’s Raspberry responded with a floater, and pulled East to 3-2.

Then, the Skippers went on a 6-0 surge and took a 9-2 lead on three free throws from Masse, and a triple from Claiborne Brochu, a junior.

East ended that run when Mack Hanley, a senior center, scored with a put back.

After North Kingstown’s Tristan Curran made one of two from the charity stripe, East’s Andrew Khvang buried a jumper and pulled the Bolts within four with 11:46 remaining in the half.

However, over the next six minutes, North Kingstown got two 3-pointers from Sacchetti, and two old-fashioned 3-point plays from both Masse and Dylan Poirier during a 19-6 spurt and constructed a 29-12 buffer with 5:47 left.

The Bolts got a 3-ball from Blanco right after that and cut the deficit to 14.

Nonetheless, with 4:35 remaining, North Kingstown got another 3-point play, this time from Brochu, who made a layup while he was fouled on a breakaway and gave the Skippers a 34-15 cushion.

North Kingstown maintained that edge for the remainder of the half and took a 39-20 lead into halftime.

Brochu began the second half with a layup, which upped the Skippers’ advantage to 21.

Raspberry then responded with a jumper for East and got them to 41-22.

But with 12 minutes left, the Skippers went on a 9-0 run which saw Sacchetti score both a put back and a 3-pointer, before Masse made a transition layup and Poirier a bucket, and that gave North Kingstown a 50-22 padding.

East got back-to-back layups after that from both Khvang and Raspberry and pulled within 24.

North Kingstown answered that short spurt with an 8-0 run, where Brochu scored two buckets before Masse made a layup and Nick Quarella made two free throws, which put the Skippers on top 58-26 with 9:28 left.

Blanco buried a trey for East after that, but Brochu converted a 3-point play before Sacchetti added a layup, and extended the North Kingstown lead to 60-32.

The Skippers closed the final eight minutes of the game on a 26-17 run before walking off the court with a 37-point victory.

A bright spot on the night for East was when Blanco netted his 1,000th career point midway through the second half.

“Words can’t explain how proud I am of him,” McDaniel said. “Of the entire group to be honest with you. They’ve been playing a lot since they’ve been sophomores and it’s been a great three years since I’ve been here and I’m going to miss them.”  

Before losing in the semifinal, the Bolts knocked off 14th ranked East Greenwich and 6th ranked Mt. Pleasant.

The ‘Bolts finished the season and playoffs with an overall record of 22-5.