By STEVE MAZZONE

Sports writer

PAWTUCKET - This one hurt. This one really hurt.
Mired in a month-long slump, Tolman High came agonizingly to a long-awaited ‘W’ only to lose in the closing seconds as visiting Mount Hope left the James W. Donaldson Gymnasium with a 34-33 victory Friday night in a tightly-contested Division II contest.
The Tigers, who dropped their seventh straight tilt, held a six-point cushion with about nine minutes remaining. The Huskies slowly whittled down the deficit until securing the triumph on a pair of free throws from Lauren Maisano with nine ticks left on the clock.
The setback put a damper on another stellar night for the Tigers’ Leanna Fanning. The talented junior finished with a game-high 23 points, including some clutch baskets during the final stretch.
Tolman, which dropped to 2-8 in Division II-Central, has not won a game since defeating Shea back on Dec. 30. On the positive side, however, the Tigers had one of their best defensive games of the season against the Huskies.
“We’ve been working on our defense,” said Tolman coach Tammy Drape. “When you hold a team to 34 points as a coach you have to be pretty happy with that. We just can’t seem to find the team chemistry (this season).”
The Tigers near win of Friday was against a quality Mount Hope squad. The Huskies, who improved to 7-4 in D-I East, had won two of their last three games. Their lone loss during the mini stretch was a narrow 48-46 decision to undefeated and defending state titlist Barrington (10-0 in D-II East) this past Wednesday.
Tolman never made it easy for the Huskies with its defensive effort and led by a scant two points at halftime with a score of 14-12. The game turned into a nail-biter in the final few minutes of the contest.
After out-scoring the Tigers, 6-1, during a brief two-minute stretch, Mount Hope tied the score at 28 with less than five minutes remaining. Shortly after, Fanning gave the Tigers the lead back by powering through the Huskies defense with a difficult layup inside the paint.
After the Huskies’ Kayla Whiting (nine points) sank a bucket to knot the score at 30, Fanning again put her teammates in front, at 33-30, when she converted on a three-point play after getting fouled on a near carbon copy of her previous layup with 2:59 left.
Whiting got the Huskies to within a point (33-32) with another key basket. It appeared like Lady Luck would be on the side of the Tigers as the game approached the last minute. The Huskies’ Maria Newland just missed a three-pointer with 1:10 left on the clock. After Mount Hope got the ball back off a turnover, the Tigers’ defense forced Newland to be charged with a traveling violation. Tolman’s Amy Fernandes missed a pair of free throws with 25 seconds remaining and then Maisano made good on her attempts to give the Huskies the win. 
“My girls played great defense,” Drape said. “They all helped each other. You’ve got to give credit to Mount Hope. They played great defense, too. We just didn’t rebound the ball very well today.”
On Monday, the Tigers will try once again to get out of their mid-season funk when they host Pilgrim. Drape still has confidence that her squad can make it to the postseason. The top 12 teams in the league earn a berth.
“There’s still a lot of basketball to be played,” she said. “Right now I’m thinking eight or nine wins so I need about six wins…This was a great motivator for them. They played well. Now we just have to get ready for Pilgrim on Monday, and just keep trying.”
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MOUNT HOPE (34) - Maria Newland 3 0-0 7, Lauren Maison 0 3-4 3, Alison Massed 3 0-0 7, Stacy Delekta 2 2-2 6, Kayla Whiting 4 1-5 9, Amy Morreira 0 2-4 2. Totals - 12 8-15 34
TOLMAN (33) - Maria Lopera 2 0-0 4, Amy Fernandes 1 0-3 2, Leanna Fanning 7 7-9 23, April Maine 1 0-0 2, Jenna Ayala 1 0-0 2, Kayla Perdono 0 0-1 0. Totals - 12 7-10 33.
Halftime - T, 14-12. 3-point shots - T (2) - Fanning 2. MH (2) Newland, Massed.