By BRENDAN MCGAIR

Sports writer

BARRINGTON – Seekonk High provided a textbook case of what not to do when comfortably ahead, the setting the Barrington High School Holiday Tournament on Monday afternoon.
Instead of being afforded the chance to sit back and kick up his feet, Warriors head coach John McDonough watched in horror as a 20-point cushion nearly went up in smoke. Fortunately Seekonk regrouped in the nick of time, holding on for a too-close-for-comfort 67-65 decision over Scituate (R.I.) High.
Ricky Silva, Seekonk’s leading scorer, was one of four Warriors to reach double figures. The junior guard topped all with 24 points, adding eight assists and two steals. Strangely, Silva did not attempt a free throw even though he spent much of the game attacking the rim.
Silva received help from Mark Trial, whose layup under two minutes remaining wound up being the difference between the Spartans coming up short and forcing overtime. Trial, a senior, finished with 15 points. Classmate Matt Quinn pumped in 10 points and six rebounds while Lucas Thompson contributed 11 points and three boards.
Seekonk wasted no time in riding itself of the bad taste left from last Saturday’s SCC loss to visiting Fairhaven (78-54). The Warriors jumped all over the Spartans, building a 37-22 at halftime and up by a commanding 20 points with not even five minutes gone by in the second.
Seekonk’s advantage stood at 51-41 with 8:40 remaining, which is when anxiety began to permeate throughout the gym. Scituate ripped off nine straight points, the final three coming from Jared Hansen (14 points), to shrink what was at one time an insurmountable deficit down to 57-54 with 4:25 to go.
If the Warriors were clamoring for a wakeup call, they succeeded.
“We go up so much and we think it’s over, and it wasn’t,” said McDonough. “We stopped boxing out and helping on defense. We started to get funky with our offense, and that doesn’t work for us.”
McDonough was curious to see how his club would respond for this bout of adversity. Seekonk dug deep on both ends, blitzing Scituate with a 10-zip run that saw the Warriors force four turnovers (one a charge drawn by Quinn that wiped away a Scituate hoop) and three errant shots.
The defensive stops led to easy run outs with Silva, Thompson and Trial the beneficiaries. The run also featured Silva threading a nice pass to Quinn underneath for an easy duce.
The lead was pushed back up to double figures (67-54) for Seekonk with under two minutes remaining. Scituate, however, would not depart quietly. Two steals were followed by lay-ins from Jacob Tilman and Brendan Cabral (team-high 17 points) to make it a six-point game with 17 seconds left.
Seekonk was protecting a four-point lead even after Thompson missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 9.6 seconds to go. Scituate scored with .9 showing on the clock, but Seekonk quickly inbounded the ball to avoid any further happenings.
“It was a little bit of a wakeup call. We did what we wanted to do for a long stretch, then we don’t do anything,” said McDonough. “We have to put (forth max effort) all the time. If we don’t, because we’re small, we’re going to get beat.”
Seekonk, now 2-2 overall (1-1 in the SCC) continues its Rhode Island stay tonight against Barrington.
***
SCITUATE (65): Benjamin Mandeville 0 0-0 0, Jared Hanson 6 1-2 14, Brendan Cabral 8 0-0 17, Lionel Picot-Vierra 2 0-2 5, Kyle Pheland 3 3-4 9, Zachary Caron 4 2-4 10, Daniel Pugliese 0 0-0 0, John Dias 0 0-0 0, Jeffrey Winchell 0 0-0 0, Jacob Awwad 0 0-0 0, James Murray 0 0-0 0, Totals: 23 6-12 65.
SEEKONK (67): Sean Heaney 2 0-0 4, Ricky Silva 10 0-0 24, Matt Quinn 4 2-5 10, Andrew Killian 1 1-5 3, David Anderson 0 0-0 0, Kyle Charron 0 0-0 0, Lucas Thompson 5 1-2 11, Mark Trial 6 2-2 15. Totals: 28 6-14 67.
Halftime: Seekonk 37-22.
Three-point field goals: Sci 3 (Jared Hanson, Brendan Cabral, Lionel Picot-Vierra); Seek 3 (Ricky Silva 2, Mark Trial).