Size and depth putting Portsmouth girls basketball a step ahead

How the Portsmouth High School girls basketball team performs on the court this season will of course determine what it is able to accomplish this season.

Who is out there for the Clippers might be a question that has too many answers to fill in at the moment.

While Portsmouth is only two games into its regular-season schedule in Division II, the Clippers showed in Tuesday's 67-50 win over Hollis Brookline that, not only do they have some depth to play with this year, there's a good amount of height to go with it.

That's two things that a lot of coaches in the state would love to have, and Portsmouth coach Tim Hopley realizes that.

"We’ve got seven girls who are all 5-(foot)-10 or taller, and it can be a tough matchup," the coach said. "The good thing about those seven is they can play the face-up game as well. It’s not just back-to-the-basket stuff."

Three of those girls - Abbe Laurence and Corinne Lamond, who are listed at 6-1, and Hannah Taylor, who is 5-11 - started and played together a lot throughout the night. Laurence finished with 17 points, while Lamond had eight and Taylor had five.

That might be the biggest advantage for the Clippers (2-0), that those players are not just interchangeable, but can be on the floor at the same time. The Cavs have some height of their own with Elizabeth Atkinson (6-1) in the middle and Joanna Balsamo (5-10) at guard, but Portsmouth's numbers still created matchup problems.

"It was tough to go man-to-man with these guys because we don’t matchup size-wise," HB coach Bob Murphy said. "They’re going to have the advantage across the board when teams try to come out and play them man-to-man. They might have one big kid, like we do, but then the next kid will have to deal with (Lamond). And the kids are skillful. They have a plethora of size and that’s tough to deal with."

In the first half, when Portsmouth took a 30-17 lead, the Clippers scored 16 points inside the paint and limited HB to just three field goals, including one in the first 10 minutes of the game.

"I thought defensively we were good in the first half," Hopley said. "We did a real nice job making sure we angled all the penetration away from the hoop. We didn’t leave shooters. They’re a very good team and they’re loaded with shooters and Atkinson inside with her size, it’s a hard matchup. They attack it just as well as they shoot it, so you’ve almost got to pick your poison."

The Clippers got away from some of that in the second half, as the Cavs got the lead down to four points in the third quarter, but were able to regroup. While the size advantage can be a difference maker at times, Hopley knows it's not the only thing that's going to get Portsmouth where it wants to go this season.

"If we use it right, it’s a positive," he said. "Every once in a while, you rely on the fact that you’re just bigger than someone else and that doesn’t always get it done."

Portsmouth plays its first home game of the season Friday at 7 p.m. against Kennett.