Clippers grind out win over Salem

PORTSMOUTH — They walked out of Stone Gym looking like they’d just won a street fight.

Which they had. Barely.

On a night battling cool shooting and a determined opponent, it took every bit of grit for the Portsmouth High School boys basketball team to push their Division I record to 5-1 with a 50-45 win over Salem, one that wasn’t secured until the final seconds.

Coleman Brewster scored a game-high 21 points, Kevin Cummings hit the go-ahead 3-pointer in the final minute, and the Clippers won on a night when they fell behind by nine early and made a pedestrian six 3s.

Salem (2-4) is a different team than the one that handcuffed the Clippers in last year’s state semifinals, with four starters graduated and a key player — 6-foot-2 Michael Ference — sitting this one out with an illness.

And a loss would have been tough to stomach.

“It would have hurt pretty bad, stung pretty bad,” said Brewster. “Obviously they knocked us out last year. So to come in here, Friday night, and get a win was a really good feeling for us.”

The Clippers trailed by two in the final two minutes before Cummings (13 points) got a look at the top of the arc and drained a 3 for a 46-45 lead.

“Kevin hit a great shot. That was a huge shot for him,” said Brewster.

The race to the finish line was a series of turnovers caused by two good defenses. Brewster made all four of his free throws at the end to close it out.

“It wasn’t pretty,” said coach John Mulvey, “but at the end, our energy, and really Jack Russo’s energy, changed the whole thing for us, and we ended up making a couple shots down the stretch.”

With starting forward Calvin Hewett out of town, Russo, a senior who earns his floor time as a defensive energy guy, played big minutes. Often he was guarding Salem standout Trevor DeMinico (14 points), chasing him around the court, and he also grabbed some key rebounds.

“The word that comes to mind is intensity,” said Russo, asked about his role. “I know that’s what coaches look for from me every time I come off the bench. Play hard defense, dive for balls. I’m not exactly a scorer, but I enjoy my role.”

Adan Ayala (13 points) and Alex Devir (10 points) also had strong games for Salem, which raced ahead 13-4 early, fought back after falling behind by six early in the third quarter, and pushed the game into its final minute.

“I told them, point-blank, that’s the proudest I’ve been of them all year,” said Salem coach Rob McLaughlin. “I was thrilled with the effort. (Portsmouth) has a lot of guys back from last year and I thought we matched them punch for punch all night long.

“It was an old-school, get-after-it game between two really good defensive teams, making everything difficult.”

The Blue Devils are 2-4 after a stretch that also included an overtime loss at Dover on Tuesday.

“We talked about it,” said McLaughlin. “One possession here and there, and our record could be flipped. It’s hard and it hurts, and I’m glad it hurts, because that shows how much they’re giving.”

Down 32-26 when Brewster hit a 3-pointer after halftime, the Blue Devils dug in and later rolled off a 7-0 run of their own to go up six, Ayala and DeMinico hitting shots.

“Every single one of their players played 100 percent all game,” said Brewster.

Brewster and Tommy Degnan (10 points) closed the third quarter with seven straight points to put their team back on top, and the fourth quarter was dominated by defense until Cummings made his late go-ahead 3.

The Clippers play their next three games on the road, against Manchester Central, Spaulding and Merrimack. All three of those teams went into Friday’s play within a game of .500.

“They came out and hit us in the mouth, and it was good to see us bounce back from that,” said Mulvey. “It would have been a tough loss, for sure. They’re a talented team, but we don’t lose a lot of games here at home and we have to protect our home court.”

CLIPPERS 50, BLUE DEVILS 45

SALEM (45)

Bennett 2-0-4, DeMinico 6-0-14, Spampinato 2-0-4, Ayala 5-1-13, Devir 5-0-10. Totals: 20-1-45.

PORTSMOUTH (50)

Degnan 4-0-10, Brewster 8-4-21, Paradis 1-0-2, Cummings 5-0-13, Russo 1-0-2, Weir 1-0-2. Totals: 20-4-50.

Salem 17 9 14 5-45

Portsmouth 13 16 12 9-50

3-point goals: Salem 4 (DeMinico 2, Ayala 2); Portsmouth 6 (Cummings 3, Degnan 2, Brewster). Fouled out: none. Prelim: Portsmouth JVs, 71-38.