The Portsmouth basketball team trounced Mt. Hope 85-48 in the annual holiday tournament at Barrington High School on Wednesday afternoon. The win boosts the Patriots record to 2-3 in Division I, while the Huskies drop to 0-5 in Division II. Both teams though are struggling in their own divisions. Portsmouth began the season 1-3 losing to Middletown, Cumberland and Bishop Hendricken.

“We had a little bit of a rocky start, said Will Alves one of the team’s four co-captains, with Tyler Hurd, Kyle Bielawa and Adam Conheeny. “But we are coming in and improving every day.”

Jack Casey led the Patriots with 17 points off the bench against the Huskies. The sophomore sank five 3-pointers and a jumper all in the second half. Bielawa scored 15, Conheeny scored 14, Alves scored 11, Hurd scored 7, Jordan Seale scored 6, Tommy Hurd and Jackson Hackley each scored 5, Tristan Conheeny scored 3 and Ben Lopes scored 2.

Hurd feels that the team has potential, especially the starters, Alves, Bielawa, Adam Conheeny, Tom Hurd and himself. Hurd gives the team some height and athleticism at center. Alves, a power forward, can drive to the hoop and step back on occasion to shoot 3’s. At guard, Bielawa can also shoot from the outside and the speedy Conheeny plays physical at the top of the key on defense and offensively, can fly up the court on fast breaks. Tom Hurd who can also shoot from the outside, fills out the starters nicely at small forward. Their struggles against their D-I opponents have been with their slow starts, said Bielawa.

“We usually fight back towards the end of the games, but we just run out of time,” he said.

The Patriots have been focusing on their defensive play according to Conheeny.

“We need some energy,” he said. Our defense isn’t where we want it to be. 

Conheeny feels that the Patriots when shooting well, can score a bunch of points in a hurry.

“We are a shooting team,” he said. “We can go inside out with Tyler. He’s a good big. He knows how to finish. We also have a lot of shooters. Kyle, Will, Tom and myself. We want to do a lot of shooting.”

Mt. Hope still trying to find their starting five

“The kids worked hard,” said Huskies’ head coach Jeffrey Grifka. “We worked on a number of things preparing for them. They are a tough team.”

Junior guard Lucas Andreozzi scored 17 points with five 3-pointers for Mt. Hope in the loss. Jack Thompson and Brian Abbruzzi each scored 9, Maleaq Roderick netted 6, Aidan MacDougall scored 5 and Jesse Wilson and Matt MacDougall each scored 4.

“They are an outside shooting team and they play aggressive,” Coach Grifka said of Portsmouth. “It’s tough to match their intensity. We had spurts ourselves and opportunities to play defense on them. Then a couple of times they got us in transition. They caught us on our heels. And when we pressed we turned the ball over too many times.”

Coach Grifka and the Huskies are still trying to figure out their starting lineup.

“I’ve had different starters every game. We have had players with injuries, players that are sick. I’ve also been trying different match ups. We really haven’t had the same five on the court in our first four or five games this year,” said Coach Grifka. “I’m still trying to find the right match up and at the same time find out who’s going to take care of the ball.”

“Lucas has been playing well,” said Coach Grifka. “But I got a young team. There’s only four seniors. I am trying to get them some experience, but at the same time, we are taking bumps and bruises along the way.”