Portsmouth's 60-41 loss to Fairland on 2/13/21 was the 9th time this season that the Trojans scored less than 50 points. The Trojans are 0-9 in those games. I went back and looked at preceding years to see if this was becoming a trend corresponding to the team's record for the year.
State Tournament Teams 2011 and 2012:
2011: Overall scoring avg. 60.46 PPG; 4 games in the 40's; 1 game in the 30s; Overall Record: 21-5
2012: Overall scoring avg. 61.88 PPG; 2 games in the 40's 1 in the 30's; Overall Record: 24-3
Since 2015:
2015: Overall scoring avg. 61.5 PPG; 3 games in the 40's; Overall Record: 20-7
2016: Overall scoring avg. 64.7 PPG; 1 game in the 40's; Overall Record: 16-8
2017: Overall scoring avg: 58.6 PPG; 6 games in the 40's; 1 in the 30's; Overall Record: 17-8
2018: Overall scoring avg: 62.5 PPG; 4 games in the 40's; 1 in 30's: Overall Record: 16-8
2019: Overall scoring avg: 49.0 PPG; 4 games in the 40's, 6 games in the 30's; Overall Record: 8-16
2020: Overall scoring avg: 57.9 PPG; 2 games in the 40's; 4 games in the 30's; Overall Record: 10-13
2021: Overall scoring avg. 52.3 PPG; 9 games in the 40's; 1 game in the 30's: Overall Record 8-12
From 2015--2018, Portsmouth had 14 games scoring in the 40's, with only 2 in the 30's. From years 2019--2021(present), the Trojans have had 15 games in the 40's, with 11 in the 30's. Record wise, Portsmouth has compiled a 26-41 record from 2019--2021(present), compared to 69-31 from 2015--2018. The state tournament teams of 2011/2012 had 4 and 2 games in the 40's respectively, and both had 1 game each in the 30's.
One could conclude that the high number of games in the 40's and 30's from 2019-2021(present) may in fact be from a lack of basketball talent rather than a change in coaching style by head coach Eugene Collins. The overall scoring average from 2011--2018 is fairly consistent, with only 1 year (2017) being below 60 PPG for the season. From 2019--2021(present) the scoring average has dropped rather dramatically, to 53.1 PPG, 5.5 PPG below the 2017 team avg. of 58.6. The Trojans during the period of 2011-2018 had 4 players that scored at least 1,000 points for their careers, those being Wayne Evans (2011/2012--1,096), Dion McKinley (2011/2012--1,096), Kyre Allison (2016--1,688), and Kendal Reynolds (2017--1,341). Since then, only 1 player has reached the 1,000 point mark, that being Matthew Fraulini (2020--1,096).
Also during the period from 2010, Coach Collins' first year, to 2018, the Trojans had several double figure scorers. Tory Horne 2010 (25 PPG), Andrew Bendolph 2011 (15 PPG), Jayllen Carter 2013 (20.4 PPG--high of 44 vs. Jackson), 2014 Isaiah Lisath/Sky Oliver/Alex Dickerson, 2015 Sky Oliver/Alex Dickerson, 2018 Reese Johnson/DJ Eley/Daniel Jordan. So for that period of 9 years, Portsmouth had reliable and consistent scorers and in turn the overall records were much better than the last 3 seasons.
Please note that the 2021-2022 Trojans will have all of its junior class back, which includes 5 players that have been regular or part time starters. The two leading scorers for this year's Trojans, Miles Shipp and Chris Duff, are seniors and will be a huge loss to an already offensively challenged team, with Shipp also being by far the leading rebounder. The leading scoring junior is averaging 9.5 PPG. The current JV team has won 8 of its last 10 games starting most of the time 3-4 freshmen, and have shown some good offensive ability. Unless something dramatic happens during the offseason, another season of well under under .500 is very likely, and it may be really difficult for the Trojans to win games given the lack of offensive punch of the current junior class.
The 2021-2022 season may indeed be a crucial one in terms of reversing the direction of Portsmouth basketball. If next season is a continuation of the last 3, then it may take several more years to restore a winning culture that Trojan basketball was known statewide for almost 100 years.
Update 2/9/21: Portsmouth lost to Ironton 52-38, which was the first time in the 2020-21 season that the Trojans have scored less than 40 points. PHS shot 1-15 on three pointers.
Update 2/11/21: Portsmouth lost to Ironton 48-44, which is the Tigers' 6th straight win over PHS. PHS leads the overall series 92-72.
Update 2/13/21: Portsmouth lost to Fairland 60-41 which is the Dragons' 12th straight win over PHS. The Trojans haven't beaten FHS since the 2015 season.
Update 2/25/21: Portsmouth's 68-53 win over Belpre in the sectional opening round is the Trojans' 8th win when scoring over 50 points. They are 8-2 in those games, 0-9 scoring under 50.
Update 2/27/21: Portsmouth's 85-47 loss to Fairland was the 10th game in which the Trojans scored less than 50 points. They went 0-10 in those games.