The East Providence Townies defeated the Central Falls Warriors 62-44 for their second win in a row at the Patch.com sponsored East Providence Christmas Classic on Wednesday.  

The Townies established dominance early with eight unanswered points to start the game. They maintained the lead, which reached double-digits quickly, for the entire game.

"They hit the boards pretty hard and got some easy shots early. I thought that early they were able to get weak side layups, which is something we've been working on in practice," Brian Crookes, Central Falls's head coach, said.

Joe Carnevale, an East Providence senior, was an offensive juggernaut, putting up 21 points with four 3-pointers. Guard Brian Poole was the second highest scorer with nine-points.

"Joey has been our leading scoring—I think 80 percent of the games. He has an ability to knock down the three and when he gets into the rhythm he can be a streaky shooter where anything that goes up is going to go in. The key for him is to stay with his confidence," Alex Butler, East Providence's head coach, said. "He got some confidence tonight and they went down."

Despite their weak start, it seemed as if momentum shifted toward Central Falls in the second half.

"We started off the second half slow. Lucky for us, they kind of struggled offensively and we worked our way through it.  We just lost our focus," Butler said.

The Townies were able to keep control of the game by keeping the tempo slowed, which is something Coach Butler said he has been working on all season.

"They can speed you up.  They sort of did that early on. I kind of let them play through it because we need to figure these things out.  They've got to figure it out. "

Coach Poole said his team tried to speed up the game, but they were unable to take advantage when that happened.

"We like to get out and run. They were able to stop the push with the dribble, which was effective. I thought we took some shots; we just didn't get them to go down.  It was a great tournament for us to be in.  I'm happy to be here and we look forward to playing this for years to come, I hope. "

East Providence resumes league play Monday at 7:00 pm against Classical High School at home. Coach Butler gave a preview of how he thinks the game will play out.

"We will have the size on them but it's a different style for them. They play with mostly four guards and one big inside.  Offensively we've got to be patient and work for the right shot."

Classical High School played the early game at the Christmas classic, losing to Ponaganset with a final score of 48-40.