NEWPORT — Robert Clark was antsy Tuesday night. The Newport High boys basketball coach is also the town’s elementary school principal and was compelled to attend a School Board meeting on an upper floor of the Towle School building while his team hosted Stevens below.

Clark could hear the crowd’s roar ebb and flow, but he had no way of knowing the score. As the evening progressed and the cheering continued, however, he figured his Tigers were hanging tough. Stevens had won the NHIAA Division III teams’ previous meeting by 17 points.

Sure enough, when Clark was finally able to hustle downstairs with four minutes remaining, he discovered a one-point game. Although the Cardinals pulled away for a 53-49 victory, he and his assistants were feeling good about a squad that was missing three injured starters.

“The guys did a great job of channeling the crowd’s energy but not getting distracted by it,” said assistant Ethan House. “They let it make them play hard and I think that’s a step forward for us.”

Said first-year Stevens coach Matt Dancosse: “We had our hands full tonight. It looked like they got new players.”

Newport was without forward Kamden Pollari and centers Kyle Ashley and Aidan Couitt. Their absence robbed the Tigers (2-3) of height and depth and meant 6-foot-1 forwards Aaron Fellows and Christian Forsythe had to carry most of the load. The former had a game-high 20 points and the latter 19.

“We got outscored, like, 16-2, in the third quarter against them last time and tonight we had a solid third quarter,” said Forsythe. “But we started to slow down and we kept fouling and had a couple bad plays. We lost our energy in the fourth.”

The teams were tied, 20-20, at halftime. Towle’s tight confines meant vocal student groups at either end could be heard throughout, and the competitors’ intensity radiated from wall to wall. Teenagers who have known each other since they were toddlers and whose extended families overlap town boundaries had pride on the line.

In the end, the Cardinals (3-3) tightened their defense of the paint and fatigued Newport couldn’t make them pay from the outside. The Tigers were also 1 of 6 from the free-throw line during the final two minutes.

“We’re a really good defensive team,” Dancosse said. “We didn’t show it in the first half when we weren’t getting the gap help we needed, but we stepped it up.”

Freshman point guard Owen Wilkinson, a standout golfer during the fall, led Stevens with 15 points and played far beyond his years.

Calm but explosive, the rookie battled Newport junior Gabe Howe all night.

“He carries himself with quiet confidence,” Dancosse said. “When the ball’s in his hands, I feel good and I think everyone on the team does, which is saying a lot for a freshman.”

Dancosse, 33, is a 2009 graduate of Stevens, where he played guard. He attended Plymouth State and performed student teaching with then-Lebanon High girls basketball coach and physical education instructor Tim Kehoe.

Dancosse taught at Randolph for a year before replacing veteran Deb Beach on Kehoe’s P.E. staff.

Dancosse was well-liked at Lebanon, where he was the golf coach and assisted boys basketball boss Kieth Matte, but he pounced when the Stevens job opened last year. The Cardinals were 12-4 last winter but returned only one starter, senior center Lucas Belisle, who had six points Tuesday.

Dancosse, who was already a Claremont resident, has two children younger than 5 and his new job features a three-minute commute. He schedules practices after his kids’ bedtime. It all makes sense.

“I have pride in Claremont and I think it’s on the rise, and I want to be a part of it,” he said. “The way I know how to try and do that is to coach and be a part of the youth programs.

“I always had the goal to be a basketball coach and a P.E. teacher and where better a place to do it than in your hometown?”

Especially when you can go next door and nip the Tigers.

Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.