Portsmouth's 3-pointer party sends Patriots to Division I boys basketball semifinals

BARRINGTON — Up against second-seeded Barrington in the Rhode Island Interscholastic League Boys Basketball Division I quarterfinal, Portsmouth’s game plan was a little more complex than chuck threes and hope they all go in. But the Patriots weren’t going to argue with the results.

Portsmouth put on a 3-point shooting display for the ages Tuesday night and none was hit by the team's best perimeter shooter. Tom Hurd was unconscious, hitting four in the first quarter, and as he kept burying threes, the Patriots' confidence grew. The lead did as well and, while Barrington mustered a late comeback, Portsmouth responded with more 3-pointers before finishing off the 79-61 upset, earning a spot in Sunday’s semifinal.

“I’ve always been confident in myself. Sometimes the shot comes, sometimes they go in and today they came,” Hurd said. “I took advantage.”

Four possessions are all it took to realize the Patriots were performing at a completely different level. Hurd opened the game with a 3-pointer, Kyle Bielawa followed and two quick buckets later, Portsmouth had a 10-2 lead and confidence through the roof.

Adam Conheeny is the Patriots’ resident sniper, as he showed in last Thursday’s preliminary win over Narragansett, but Barrington’s defense made sure he wasn’t going to burn down the gym.

Hurd did. While he wasn’t exactly Steph Curry from deep this season, on Tuesday he was better. The junior hit all four of his 3-pointers in the first quarter and made his fifth straight to start the second quarter. After Barrington mustered a third-quarter comeback, getting a deficit that was once 15 down to single digits, Hurd hit a 3-pointer to get it back to nine, and with 12 seconds left, closed the quarter with a bomb that made it 57-49.

“Probably after the fourth or fifth one, I was confident in my shot,” said Hurd, who scored 28 points and hit 7 of 10 3-pointers. “I was going to keep shooting.”

“I have confidence in 'Tommy Buckets,' ” Conheeny said. “He’s him. JV last year, he was a shooter, and this year, we were expecting it out of him. This was his first really great game.”

Making shots at a high frequency is as contagious as strep throat. Once Hurd started making shots early, Portsmouth was confident with everything they let fly. Kyle Bielawa made three, which isn’t out of the ordinary, but Will Alves hit 3 of his 4 attempts and Jackson Hackley came off the bench to knock one down in the second quarter.

“We just believe in each other,” Conheeny said. “Our crowd believes in us, they gave us some energy and we came out shooting.”

“We planned for Conheeny and Bielawa and then you have three other guys banging threes,” Barrington senior Nick Scandura said. “It’s tough, especially when you plan around those two.”

Barrington couldn’t abandon its defensive plan, so Conheeny was content to spend his day driving and dishing and getting himself to the line. He didn’t make a 3-pointer — in fact, he took only two — but he did fill up the stat sheet with 14 points, eight assists and six rebounds.

“Last game, they had trust in me. … I have trust in them,” Conheeny said. “They were doubling me, box-and-one on me. so I was giving them good looks and they were hitting it. That’s props to them.”

“If they want to focus on me and Kyle, don’t let us get our shots up, we’ve got five guys on the court who can score, guys on the bench who can score,” Conheeny said. “I just have trust in my guys.”

It’s easy to play with confidence when you’re making everything you try, but confidence is what Portsmouth does. The Patriots have a certain amount of swagger on the court and they needed it on Tuesday. Barrington’s gym was packed with fans ready to watch the Eagles go on a run toward a Division I title, but Portsmouth quieted them in the first half. When things got loud in the third quarter following a steal and layup from Matt Raffa that made it 54-49 with 1:22 left in the third, the Patriots didn’t panic.

Hurd hit his big three to close the quarter, Alves opened the fourth with his third and the offense continued to flow as the defense stepped up and made sure the game didn’t get close again.

“It just comes with chemistry — being around each other for so long, we’re all so close. We have confidence in each other,” Hurd said.

“We know we can come out and beat any team in the state. We didn’t lose the confidence we had."

There wasn’t much Barrington could have done to prevent Portsmouth’s barrage. There aren’t a lot of defenses built to withstand a 14-of-27 night from the 3-point line. The Eagles spent a lot of time maintaining the deficit to prevent it from turning into a blowout early and, after their big third-quarter run, had nothing left in the tank.

“It’s a lot tougher,” Scandura said. “You really kind of get a little frustrated, but you have to stay collected within your team.”

The good news for Barrington is that the season isn’t over. While the Divisionn I title is no longer an option, a state championship is. Unless La Salle or Hendricken end up as Division I champs (they would drop to No. 3 if that happens), the Eagles will be the No. 2 seed for the State Tournament, and they’ll be on the short list of favorites to win the tourney.

Girls playoffs: Barrington girls finish what it started, but what happened in the middle made a difference.

If Tuesday's game does anything, it shows them what it will take to do that.

“We have unfinished business to take care of,” Scandura said. “We definitely think we can win the state championship and are going to play to that level.

“There’s a lot of motivation going into this now because we got out early.”

Portsmouth’s win locked its position for the state tournament — it’s tied with Cumberland for the No. 10 seed but could fall to 12 — but the Patriots’ focus is currently on what’s next. Portsmouth will play No. 3 La Salle on Sunday in the Division I semifinals at Rhode Island College and, for the second game in a row, will be a tremendous underdog. Not that things like that matter to the Patriots anymore.

“We’re going to come out firing like we do every game,” Hurd said. “We’re going to try to come out with the win.”

PORTSMOUTH 79: Tom Hurd 10-16 1-4 28; Tyler Hurd 3-6 0-0 6; Adam Conheeny 5-14 4-4 14; Will Alves 3-5 2-2 11; Kyle Bielawa 3-9 6-8 15; Jordan Seale 0-0 0-0 0; Ben Lopes 0-1 0-0 0; Jack Casey 0-0 0-0 0; Jackson Hackley 2-3 0-0 5; Chase Fanning 0-0 0-0 0; Jacob Braud 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 26-54 13-18 79.

BARRINGTON 61: Matt Raffa 10-24 5-5 30; Owen Pfeffer 0-2 0-0 0; Quinn Murphy 0-3 1-2 1; Nick Scandura 5-18 5-7 17; Evan Anderson 2-4 1-2 5; Colin McDermott 1-3 0-0 3; Jack Ignall 0-1 0-0 0; Gabriel Tostes 0-0 0-0 0; Ryan Realejo 0-0 0-0 0; Ryan Rigamonti 2-2 1-3 5; Caleb Satisfield 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 20-59 13-19 61.

Halftime — Portsmouth 43-30. 3-pointers — Portsmouth 14-27 (Tom Hurd 7-10, Bielawa 3-9, Alves 3-4, Hackley 1-1, Conheeny 0-2, Lopes 0-1), Barrington 8-28 (Raffa 5-10, Scandura 2-10, McDermott 1-3, Murphy 0-2, Pfeffer 0-1, Satisfield 0-1, Tostes 0-1). Rebounds — Portsmouth 40 (Tom Hurd 11), Barrington 30 (Anderson 9). Assists — Portsmouth 12 (Conheeny 8), Barrington 5 (Pfeffer 3). Turnovers — Portsmouth 11 (Tom Hurd 5), Barrington 6 (Pfeffer 4). Steals — Portsmouth 3 (three with 1), Barrington 5 (Murphy 2). Blocks — Portsmouth 2 (Tom Hurd, Braud), Barrington 1 (Scandura). Fouled out — Pfeffer. Technical fouls — Pfeffer 2.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Portsmouth boys basketball team upsets Barrington in D-I quarterfinals