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# Portsmouth boys basketball finds different way to win against Alvirne
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/portsmouth-boys-basketball-finds-different-way-to-win-against-alvirne/
- Published: 2025-01-11T16:15:14.000Z
- Updated: 2025-01-11T16:15:14.000Z
- Description: PORTSMOUTH – Scoring points hadn’t been a problem for the Portsmouth High School boys basketball team in winning its opening five games of the season. But there was a sense early on Friday night the Clippers were going to be tested by an Alvirne squad that brought plenty of physicality. Portsmouth a
- Author: Dan Doyon
- Tags: Division I, Alvirne, boys basketball, Portsmouth, slider, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

PORTSMOUTH – Scoring points hadn’t been a problem for the Portsmouth High School boys basketball team in winning its opening five games of the season.

But there was a sense early on Friday night the Clippers were going to be tested by an Alvirne squad that brought plenty of physicality.

Portsmouth adjusted to match Alvirne’s toughness and figured out the hard way to stay undefeated by surviving a 39-38 Division I battle inside a raucous Stone Gymnasium.

“We’ve been scoring the ball relatively with ease and to see us really struggle on that end and be able to hang our hat on the defensive end and to be able to pull out a win is encouraging,” Portsmouth coach Jon Mulvey said. “We know we can win by scoring and (Friday) we showed we can win on the defensive end.”

Portsmouth (6-0) had just come off an 84-59 win against Dover and was averaging 73 points a game heading into Friday night’s game, that came down to defensive stop on the last play after Alvirne (3-3) was was given the chance to win the game following a pair of missed free throws by Portsmouth’s Damien Sanu

Alvirne’s Alex Valenzuela raced down the court coming out of a timeout with five seconds left and split through Sanu and Finnegan McCauley before freshman Derek Swartz closed in on him in the paint to force an errant shot to end the game and prompt the student section to storm the court.

“(The crowd) fueled us to play like we did and they’re probably the reason why we won,” Swartz said “Just the defense chants and cheering us on. That’s who we were playing for (Friday).”

After Valenzuela opened the fourth quarter with a drive to give Alvirne a 31-27 lead, Finn McCauley and Ryan Swartz (10 points) countered with hoops. Ryan Swartz then took a charge midway through the fourth that led to three made free throws from Isaiah Reis and a hoop by McCauley to cap off a 9-0 run and give Portsmouth a 36-31 lead.

“It was just a really long game, they’re a great team and very physical and they sat in that zone all night,” Ryan Swartz said. “But the fourth quarter is all that matters. There was a lot more intensity and just getting the game coming to us.”

Alvrine closed to within 37-35 following a 3-pointer by Gabe Conrow (12 points) and buckets by Valenzuela and Andrew Deely. The Broncos had a chance to tie the game, but McCauley gave Portsmouth possession when he took a charge with 51 seconds remaining.

The Clippers then padded their lead to 39-35 before Alvirne’s Sam DeWitt drained a 3-pointer with 21 seconds remaining.

“Alvirne is going to be so tough, they’re huge, they’re physical and they ran a really good zone and we really, really struggled to shoot,” Mulvey said. “We really started pounding the offensive glass in the fourth quarter. We kept the ball alive with some of our misses and got second and third opportunities.”

After surviving a rockfight, the young Portsmouth team that has no seniors now knows how tough it can be and it can only help the Clippers in a regular season that continues with next Tuesday’s home game against Merrimack.

“It’s different for sure, we’d been scoring in the 80s before,” Ryan Swartz said. “We fought a hard, hard, hard physical style of play. But a win is a win and it feels good to come out with it.”