EAST PROVIDENCE — The East Providence High School boys’ basketball team won what proved its final game of the 2019-20202 season, but it wasn’t the one the locals had hoped it would be.

Playing before limited spectators due to the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, the Townies gave those in attendance a brief respite from the severity of the situation Thursday night, March 12, as they defeated visiting Lincoln High, 103-82, in an entertaining first round game of the 2020 Open State Tournament.

The tournament, as with other school-related events for the rest of the winter season at least, were canceled the next day by the Rhode Island Interscholastic League.

Instead of making a potential trip to the semifinals, the E.P. players and coaches, like their peers still in the competition, were left to ponder what might haven been.

Brian Taylor led four Townies to reach double figures in scoring with a night-best 27 points. The junior also 12 rebounds. R.J. Pina had 19, Josh Kauffman 18 and Matt DosSantos 11. East Providence improved to 17-6 overall with the win, which turned out to be the Townies’ final record. Vinny Nassi paced the Lions with 26 points. Lincoln ended its 2019-20 season with a 20-4 overall mark.

State officials earlier in the week had previously recommended against holding large scale events with patrons numbering over 250, so Thursday’s game was witnessed by far fewer folks than would have normally come to Ramos Gymnasium that evening.

But those there saw an up-and-down contest for nearly all 32 minutes. The guest Lions, who the weekend before won the Division III tournament title, stayed with the sixth-seeded Townies for the better part of the first half. Lincoln, seeded 13th in the state event, last led just after the mid-point of the opening period, 20-18, before the hosts began to pull away.

Sixth-seeded East Providence eventually used a 15-2 run to take control of the contest. The Townies held a double-digit lead late, but the Lions responded with their own spurt to cut the deficit to just five. However, E.P. scored four points in the final few seconds to take a 49-40 lead to intermission.

“We started out slow, went away from what the game plan was, which was I knew they were going to box-and-1 (defend) R.J. So the middle was wide open to attack there and the short corner would open up for 3s,” EPHS head coach Joe Andrade explained. “We instead shot and missed 3s early on then realized what I said was correct. Brian got anything he wanted inside, and ultimately the box on R.J. let Brian have anything he wanted and then the shooters were wide open.”

The Townies continued to expand their lead in the second half, increasing their margin well into double figures prior to finishing off the 21-point victory.

E.P. was next slated to meet 14th-seeded East Greenwich in the quarterfinals Saturday, March 14, at Rhode Island College. The Avengers, of Division II, upset third-seeded Mt. Pleasant, of D-I, 67-48 in their opening round game Thursday on the road in Providence.

The Townies would have been considered the favorites in the quarters, opening up a spot in the final four semifinals this coming weekend at the University of Rhode Island. Due to the fluid COVID-19 situation, though, that game and the rest of the state tourney were called off hours later.

“We expected to be in the final four. We just weren’t sure who it would be next, Mount or E.G.,” Andrade said of bracket and the how the season ended. “Then everything gets cancelled…These years, team-wise, they don’t happen often. We had great kids and they were obviously talented, too…It’s tough to swallow because the kids are disappointed and I am, too.”