Huskies ready to open season after, 66-24, Tiv Tourney victory over Brooke High

Photos and story by Richard W Dionne Jr
Posted 12/28/19

The Mt. Hope Basketball team won their first game of the preseason, 66-24, over Brooke High School at the Tiverton Holiday Tournament on Thursday night.

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Register to post events


If you'd like to post an event to our calendar, you can create a free account by clicking here.

Note that free accounts do not have access to our subscriber-only content.

Day pass subscribers

Are you a day pass subscriber who needs to log in? Click here to continue.


Huskies ready to open season after, 66-24, Tiv Tourney victory over Brooke High

Posted

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 24.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 24.0px Helvetica; min-height: 29.0px}

 TIVERTON—The Mt. Hope Basketball team won their first game of the preseason, 66-24, over Brooke High School at the Tiverton Holiday Tournament on Thursday night. Power forwards Jaden Siembab (18 points) and Jalen Kopecky (17 points) led the way for the Huskies. Mt. Hope went 1-2 in the preseason, losing to Somerset and Barrington. They play their first league game against Scituate on Friday, January, 1, at 6:45 p.m. 

“When we work the ball inside, good things happen. It’s what we did all last year,” said Siembab, a senior captain for the Huskies.

The smaller, thinner Brooke team was no match for the strength and size of the Huskies under the basket. 

“We got the same guys coming back and we want the same outcome as last year,” Siembab said. 

“The team is working hard and playing hard. Working off some of that holiday food,” said Head Coach Jeff Grifka rubbing his belly. 

Aside from last year’s championship starters, Jalen Kopecky, Jaden Siembab, Nathan Ouellette and Xavier Costa, this year’s team has added depth with the emergence of Brady Thibaudeau, Mason Almeida and Nuno Amaral.

“Brady works so hard in practice. He has the ability to shoot the three from the outside and play and bang around down low,” said coach Grifka. “He’s been my first or second person off the bench. He’s very versatile. He can play a few positions and it’s quite an asset to have someone like that,” coach Grifka said.

Almeida is a quick and athletic guard that can play the point or two guard. 

“Mason is very versatile,” said coach Grifka. “And Nuno, a soccer player, is a hustler. He’s one of those kids who sets the tone. And he’s very vocal, which I like.”

Coach Grifka had the Huskies working the press defense against Brooke High.

“We’ve been working on that. We used it last year to try to slow them down a little bit. Make our opponents make decisions when they only have a certain amount of time. Hopefully we can control the game a little bit more,” said coach Grifka. “We are building and moving forward.” 

 

Scoring: Jaden Siembab scored 18 points, Jalen Kopecky scored 17, Xavier Costa scored 10 points, Robert DaCosta scored 4, Mason Almeida scored 4 , Brady Thibaudeau scored 3, London Camelo scored 3, Bruce Mcguire scored 2, Manny DaSilva scored 2 and Gavin Winn scored 2 and Nathan Ouellette scored 1.

2024 by East Bay Media Group

Barrington · Bristol · East Providence · Little Compton · Portsmouth · Tiverton · Warren · Westport
Meet our staff
Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.