Portsmouth boys basketball remains undefeated with win over Souhegan

AMHERST – If Souhegan High School boys basketball coach Mike Heaney has nightmares Friday night, there’s a good chance they’ll include Billy Lane.

They might go a little like this: Lane starts to drive to the basket, hesitates, then explodes to the hoop. The defense gets there late, the basket is good and a Souhegan player is called for a foul. Lane, a Portsmouth senior, then completes the three-point play.

Lane scored 11 of his game-high 20 points in the fourth quarter and was 10 of 13 from the line as the Clippers (8-0) remained undefeated in Division II, beating Souhegan 55-43.

“Billy Lane was in another world,” Portsmouth coach Jim Mulvey said. “He was tremendous.”

Defensively, Lane was solid in the fourth quarter as well, holding Souhegan’s Brandon Len to four points, including just two free throws in the final seven minutes. Len finished with 16 points to lead Souhegan (6-1) while Zack Simmonds added 12.

Charlie Duprey added 16 points for the Clippers while Kamahl Walker scored 11. Despite that point total, Heaney felt the Sabers a good enough job on Walker … just not on Lane.

“We did the job on Walker and he’s an outstanding player,” Heaney said. “We talked about what we had to do on Billy Lane and we didn’t do it. We let him get in the lane and score, which he does really well.

“They went in the lane and we got there late and we hit them late. They’re making layups and they’re making free throws. We put them in position to make those.”

Portsmouth shot 20-for-25 from the free throw line, something that shocked Mulvey.

“We’re usually pretty poor,” he said. “For us, that’s good. That was outstanding.”

The Clippers led by as many as 11 points in the first half, going up 24-13 with 2:58 left before the break. But Souhegan was able to close the gap to six points, going on an 8-3 spurt leading into halftime.

“They were going to make a run,” Mulvey said. “One of us could be up 14-0 at the beginning of the game, but the other team is going to come back and the game will be tied sometime in the third quarter. It’s a game of runs when you play good teams.”

Sure enough, Souhegan chipped away at the lead in the third. A layup by Len made it a four-point game, and after a free throw by Lane, Len made two more layups to cut the lead to one. Duprey responded with a layup, but James Sheldon answered with a 3-pointer to tie the game at 36. The Sabers’ defense held at the other end, and the teams went to the fourth tied 36-36.

“When we didn’t let them get a basket at the end of the third, I said ‘we’re right there, right where we wanted to be,’ ” Heaney said. “But then it went back to basic basketball: rebounding, keeping them out of the lane and help-side defense.”

Duprey opened the quarter with a 3-pointer, but the Sabers hung around. A 3-pointer by Simmonds made it 44-41 with four minutes to play, but the Clippers closed the game with an 11-2 run.

“I thought we executed some nice plays at the end,” Mulvey said. “This is fun. This is what high school basketball is about.”

Earlier in the week, Heaney called it the biggest boys basketball played in Amherst in a while. The loss is now a learning experience for the Sabers, who have been knocked out by Portsmouth in the playoffs the last two seasons, including in the semifinals a year ago.

“Portsmouth teaches us how much harder we have to go to beat the top schools in our division,” Heaney said. “We’re still a work-in-progress.”