Westport beat West Bridgewater 73-61 iun a jam-packed home game Friday night. The Wildcats have won six in a row and sport an overall record of 8-2. The team is now 1-0 in Mayflower League play. 

“We played our game. We out-hustled them. We out rebounded them,” said sophomore guard Domanick Vitorino. “In the first half we came out punching. They came out swinging. In the second half we picked up our momentum again. And we got that W.” 

Westport’s high-intensity press defense paid dividends for the team’s fast-break offense. Connor Lecomte, Max Mendell, Max Powers and Domanick Vitorino all scored double figures for the Wildcats as they led 21-9 after the first quarter, 31-23 at halftime and never looked back.

Lecomte, a senior captain, scored 9 first quarter points and finished with a team-high 16 points.

“In the first half we played with a lot of intensity,” said Lecomte. “We played great defense. We were making our shots. We got in their face, stole the ball or made them turn the ball over.”

Mendell, a freshman, scored 12 points in the second half and finished with 14 points.   

“We knew that West Bridgewater, which is an exceptional three-point shooting team, was not going to back down,” said Westport Head Coach Scot Boudria. “Coach Mike Antonio does a great job getting his team to play top notch basketball.” 

With 4:40 to go in the third quarter, Lecomte pulled down a rebound and shoveled the ball to the speedy Max Mendell. The freshman guard dribbled up court and rifled a pass to junior captain Aidan Viveiros waiting on the post by the bleachers filled with the Westport pep band. Viveiros launched a three and sunk it, stretching Westport’s lead to 44-27.

The gym erupted. 

With the crowd cheering wildly,  West Bridgewater called a time out  

Vitorino got the Westport crowd back on their feet when the Wildcats pushed the lead to 49-30 with 2:52 to go in the third quarter. 

Near mid-court, Viveiros and Vitorino cornered West Bridgewater guard Ryan Hulme and he coughed up the ball. Vitorino cruised in for an easy layup to give Westport a 19 point edge. 

West Bridgewater cut the lead to 51-39 by the end of the third quarter but Mendell hit a jumper from the side of the basket to give Westport a 53-39 lead with 7:46 to play. 

Nick Payne didn’t play big minutes, but he made his time count. He hit a pair of foul shots to give Westport a 59-47 lead with 4:42 left to play. Then he grabbed a defensive rebound. 

Lecomte sunk a free throw to give the Wildcats a 60-48 lead.   Payne grabbed the rebound off of the second free throw and was fouled. He sunk one of two to give Westport a 61-48 edge with 3:45 left. 

West Bridgewater cut the lead to 65-56 with two minutes left to play. But Mendell hit a pair of free throws to put the Wildcats up 67-56 with 1:43 to play. Max Powers hit a close range jumper to make the score 71-61 with under a minute to play. 

West Bridgewater fouled Mendell as Westport passed the ball around with seconds left and he sank both free throws to  end the game. 

“It was an intense game. This is great high school basketball,” said coach Boudria. “I thought that we did a great job with our defense. The plan is to get a little better every game. I thought that we played really, really well defensively.”

Westport scoring: Connor Lecomte scored 16 points, Max Mendell scored 14 points, Max Powers scored 12 points, Domanic Vitorino scored 10 points, Aidan Viveiros scored 7 points, Aidan Rock scored 5 points, Nick Payne scored 5 points, Donjae Raiche scored 4.