Portsmouth boys basketball holds off Dover to win second straight D1 title

DURHAM – The free throw line in the final minute of a championship game is a scary place to be for many high school basketball players.

For Cody Graham, it might as well be his comfort zone.

With 38.1 seconds left in Saturday’s Division I championship game, and the Portsmouth High School boys basketball team clinging to a two-point lead against Dover, Graham was about to go to the line for a one-and-one.

The Green Wave used a timeout to give the Clippers senior plenty of time to think about the shot, and all Graham did was sink both.

It was the first of six straight free throws in the final seconds for top-seeded Portsmouth, as the Clippers held on for a 46-38 win, ending No. 11 Dover’s surprise playoff run, at the University of New Hampshire.

The title is the second D1 championship in a row for Portsmouth (19-2), and third overall, and the fourth final in four years for Graham.

“If that was freshman year, I probably would have walked off the court crying because I would have been so scared,” Graham said. “Being here four years, I was pretty calm with it. Probably the two biggest shots of my career right there. I’m just glad I got my legs into it and hit both of them.”

Graham finished with a game-high 22 points, including 5 of 6 at the line, and grabbed six rebounds.

But perhaps more importantly, he provided a steady hand for the Clippers throughout the game.

“When everything gets a little crazy, he just has that calmness about him,” Portsmouth coach Jim Mulvey said. “During the year, you get upset with him because you think he’s not playing hard, but it comes in handy in big games and big moments. He’s played every game you could possibly play in four years.”

Alex Tavares added 10 points and six rebounds for Portsmouth and Mike Sanborn had six points, hitting two 3-pointers.

Dover (11-11) got 18 points and eight rebounds from Tyler Vitko, including all seven of the team’s points in the fourth quarter. Devin Cady had seven of his nine points in the third and John Cantwell finished with three points and 13 rebounds, as the Green Wave held a 36-23 edge on the boards.

While Dover was able to overcome a 10-point deficit early in the third quarter, the Green Wave was never able to get closer than two in the second half. Dover was called for three offensive fouls in the game and twice missed shots in the fourth that would have given the Green Wave the lead or tied the game.

“I felt like we got some stops, some key stops,” Dover coach Matt Fennessy said. “We had some bad turnovers. I felt like there was a stretch where we’d come down, turn it over, we’d get a stop, we’d turn it over, we’d get a stop. They do a good job of sacrificing and taking the charge. That is a momentum-changing play.”

If there were nerves for Dover at the start, it didn’t show, as the Green Wave hit their first two shots and had a 5-0 lead 73 seconds into the game. Portsmouth got going on back-to-back 3s from Calvin Hewitt and Sanborn to take a 6-5 lead.

Dover went back up on its next possession, getting a jumper from Cady for a 7-6 lead, but the Clippers ended the first with an 8-2 run to lead 14-9 after one.

A 3 by Ryan Coleman got Dover within two points early in the second, but Portsmouth went on a 9-0 run to take a 23-12 lead and force the Green Wave to take a timeout with 4:38 left in the half.

Vitko scored on a putback after the break and Cantwell scored on the next possession to get the lead down to seven, and it was 24-18 Portsmouth going into the half.

Two quick baskets by Tavares and Graham to open the third made it a 10-point lead, but Cady answered with a 3, and after a steal by Griffin Carloni, Vitko scored to cut the Portsmouth lead in half.

It was part of a 13-5 run for Dover that made it a 33-31 game with 2:28 left in the quarter, but Graham scored in the final minute to get the lead to four points going into the fourth.

Two free throws by Vitko to open the quarter made it 35-33, but Graham answered with a 3 and then found Max Lincoln for a basket to put Portsmouth up 40-33 with 6:31 to play.

“The biggest thing I noticed was when things got a little bit crazy, he talked to everybody,” Mulvey said. “He’s been here. I didn’t see any nerves. I saw nerves with other guys, but he got people to calm down.”

But that basket by Lincoln would be the last field goal the Clippers made, as they went almost six minutes without scoring. A 3 and a jumper by Vitko made it a 40-38 game with 2:52 left, and Portsmouth’s defense stepped up.

Vitko missed a 3 on Dover’s next possession that would have given the Green Wave the lead, and Cady came up short on a layup that would have tied it. Tavares got the rebound and got the ball to Graham, who was fouled after taking 47 seconds off the clock.

Dover took a timeout before Graham went to the line for the one-and-one with 38.1 seconds remaining.

“He was something else,” Tavares said of Graham. “I have faith. We practice free throws every day. I knew he was hitting those.”

Graham made both to give Portsmouth a 42-38 lead, and after Dover missed two 3s, he went back to the line for two more free throws to push the Clippers’ advantage to six. Tavares tacked on two more free throws with 10 seconds left to finish out the scoring.