Portsmouth High School Patriots Fall Short, Lose to Townies 71-66

Depth made a difference.

Playing without two regulars (Alex Hurley and Victor Adewusi) and with top scorer Jawaan Lyles suffering through a cold shooting night, the East Providence High boys’ basketball nevertheless produced enough firepower to hold off visiting , 71-66, Tuesday night in an entertaining Division 1 game.

Brendan Quigley scored 16 of his team-high 20 points in the second half and reserves Mathias McGonigle and John Vaughn came up big in extended service time as the Townies withstood a furious late Portsmouth charge to even their divisional record and 1-1 and to improve to 2-2 overall. Evan Hole poured in a game-high 24 points and Wildanny Paredes added 18 points for the Patriots, who dropped to 0-2 against league rivals and 1-2 on the year.

Capitalizing on its balanced attack featuring four double-digit scorers, East Providence built leads of as many as 11 points late in the second half before Portsmouth shaved its deficit to three points in the final minute. Clutch free throw shooting from Quigley and Lyles in the closing two minutes sealed the win for the hosts.

Lyles finished with 16 points for the winners, but shot poorly from the floor. McGonigle and John Resendes both finished with 10 points and Vaughn added 6 points in the second half, all on offensive put-backs.

“We’re still a work in progress, but we had some kids step up for us tonight,” said Townie Coach Alex Butler. “Mathias McGonigle stepped up and played well in the second half and Edwin Sam came off the bench and gave us some quality minutes. We prepare every day and when they’re called upon, they have to go out and perform.”

Patriot Coach Joe Occhi lamented his squad’s missed chances.

“We missed layups and we gave up a few rebounds as well,” Occhi said. “We had plenty of opportunities and plenty of looks, but we missed a lot of good shots. That was the difference.”

EP held a slim 33-31 lead at halftime, but trailed by a 40-39 margin with 11:41 to go when Portsmouth’s Robbie Wordell suffered a knee injury which sidelined him for the rest of the contest. The Townies responded with a 7-0 burst to take the lead for good and widened their gap to 55-44 at the 5:53 mark on a Lyles drive and lay-in.

The Patriots trailed by eight points (57-49) with 4:39 remaining when Connor Burns came off the bench and dropped in successive three-pointers to draw the visitors to within 61-56 at the 2:26 mark. Later, Hole drained a trey and a free throw to narrow the difference to 65-62 with 1:08 left, but Lyles calmly bottomed two charity tosses and Quigley added four more in the last 20 seconds to seal the outcome.

The teams battled through several lead changes and ties in the opening period and Portsmouth took its largest lead of the night at 16-10 with 9:46 to play on a Hole drive and lay-in. East Providence then outscored the Pats by a 19-5 margin during the ensuing six minutes to assume a 29-21 advantage before Hole and Paredes both tallied four points in a finishing 10-4 spurt that drew Portsmouth to within a bucket at the break.

Butler said he was pleased with East Providence’s offensive balance.

“Our shot distribution was good and we always share the basketball,” he said. “I’m a firm believer that if you share the basketball, everybody will buy into the system.”

Both teams will resume their Division 1 regular-season schedules Friday. East Providence will travel to Pawtucket to face St. Raphael Academy, while Portsmouth will return home to host Hope High of Providence.