The Johnston High School girls' basketball team continued their winning ways Friday night with a 65-46 win over Hope High School at home. The win, their second straight with 65 points, improved their record to 6-2 aginst Division II North opponents and 8-4 overall.

Before the contest, Johnston's Alaina DeNoncour was given the game ball from last week's match-up in Central Falls, where she scored the 1,000th point of her career.

The game started out close, with Johnston and Hope (4-3 in Division II North, 5-3 overall) trading baskets, including 5 quick points from Johnston's Victoria Santangelo. That ended with about 10 minutes left in the first half, when Johnston went on a 6-0 run and didn't look back.

With 8:09 left in the first half, Hope's Mikaela Garvin scored the 1,000th point of her career. Play was temporarily stopped while Garvin was presented with balloons and flowers, and congratulated by well-wishers.

Shortly before the end of the first half, Samantha Maner threw a perfectly placed pass to Victora Santangelo for a quick two. The score at the half was 38-20 Johnston.

When the second half began, The Panthers came on strong, out-scoring Hope by a 25 to 15 margin.  With 4:32 left in the game, and a 63-35 advantage, Johnston coach Dan Mazzulla went to his bench and made substitutions for his starters.

Hope took advantage of Johnston's bench by closing out the game with an 11-2 run, including some excellent defensive plays.

The leading scorers for Johnston were DeNoncour with 23 and Victoria Santangelo with 17. Mikaela Garvin led Hope with 17 points, followed by Maiva Monteiro with 15.

The Lady Panthers have a week off before they host Moses Brown on Friday.