The Cranston East and Cranston West girls basketball teams went 1-1 during their holiday tournament last week at East.

Scituate took home first place, while both the Bolts and Falcons took home 1-1 finishes. Providence Country Day finished 0-2 during the tournament.

The Falcons dropped their first game to eventual champion Scituate by a score of 41-30. Scituate jumped out to a 17-5 lead to begin the game, and would take the 22-6 lead into the break.

The Falcons came out sharper in the second period and would pull within nine points thanks to an 18-11 run. However, the Scituate defense would hold on down the stretch to secure the win.

“We were unfocused, lacked a little discipline. Right now, we’re just not good enough to turn it on when we want to. With the kids that we have, we’re still trying to figure out a rotation that will allow us to play consistently but we haven’t been able to find it yet. We need to narrow down the kids that are going to come into the game focused and ready to play,” said West coach PJ Thibodeau after the loss.

Lauren Plociak led West with eight points while Annissa Ferranti and Katie Blake each added six.

Thibodeau feels that his team is still working through the growing pains of a new season.

“We scouted them, we knew what they were doing, we gave up baskets that we talked about not giving up, we were impatient. That’s on me and I have to do a better job,” said Thibodeau. “We have five freshmen and then a few kids that have a bigger role this year. We haven’t had these kids find the confidence to compete in the games yet and they’re still feeling their way through things. It shows when we stall. It’s hard to be patient when you’re down. Had we been up, it gives you a little but more leeway, but we’ve been getting down and that causes some pressure.”

Despite the loss, Thibodeau remaines confident in his club as the midseason approaches.

“I know what they’re capable of, but if they don’t believe in it then nothing else matters. If we have a bunch of kids deferring, a bunch of kids afraid to make a play … we aren’t bad but we have kids that are afraid to make the play. We have a lot of people standing around on offense, kids that aren’t focused on defense, we just aren’t a mentally tough team right now,” said Thibodeau.

The Falcons responded with a big 56-17 win over PCD the following day.

Plociak led West with 12 points in the win while Amanda Degnan added seven and Catherine Albizu six.

The Lady Bolts would cruise to a win over PCD to kick off the tournament, but would fall the next day 53-35 to Scituate in the winners bracket.