Portsmouth boys basketball focused on pushing Lebanon back

The line always messes up someone, whether its fans, coaches or even officials.

Of course the different men's 3-point line at Southern New Hampshire University and the University of New Hampshire must throw off players as well.

The Portsmouth High School boys basketball team has played 10 games over the last six years at Lundholm Gym, which like SNHU has the men's 3-point line marked in black on the floor, while the women's line, which is the same distance as the high school 3, is gray.

That experience is enough that the Clippers coaching staff takes the different 3-point lines into consideration when preparing to play its opponent.

"It's hard to shoot up here because everyone shoots from the black (3-point) line," Portsmouth coach Jim Mulvey said after his team defeated Lebanon in Saturday's Division II championship. "We tell the kids to step on the black line. We said they're going to take a bunch of 3s, just keep making them move out."

The Raiders did take a lot of 3s, without much success, as they were 1 of 23 from behind the 3-point line. Lebanon shot 24.5 percent from the field, but take out the 3-point attempts, and that number goes up to 42.3 (11 of 26).

Lebanon wanted to go inside more against the Clippers, but Portsmouth's defensive alignment prevented that almost from the start by putting center Joey Glynn in the middle of the lane. While the other four Clippers played man-to-man, Glynn stayed in a one-man zone, meaning Portsmouth had two players in the lane every time Lebanon went inside.

"We'd try to run one play, it looks like we have a seam and then Joey Glynn is in the way," Lebanon coach Kieth Matte said. "We're not doing what we intended on doing. He made a big difference.

"He's a very good defensive player. It takes away our cuts and backdoors. You've got to make jump shots and we didn't make jump shots. It's that simple."

By not going inside, it also meant the Raiders weren't getting to the free throw line. Lebanon didn't shoot a free throw in the second half and Portsmouth finished the game with just 13 fouls.

"We didn't want them to get to the rack and let them settle for jump shots," Portsmouth sophomore Cody Graham said. "KJ Matte and Ryan Milliken are great shooters and we just had to do what we could to stop them. We didn't let them drive and we took some big charges and made them shoot."

Next season, Portsmouth will move up to Division I after spending the last decade in Class I/Division II. In those 10 years, the Clippers reached at least the semifinals eight times, and played in the title game seven times, going 3-4.

The last three years, Portsmouth ended Lebanon's season, with two semifinal wins over the Raiders in 2014 and 2015.

"They're like our white whale and we're not going to get to play them again," Lebanon coach Kieth Matte said. "Maybe (Sunday) I'll feel differently."