Jan. 18th Games

I'm not going to sugar coat it. I really had to sift through the schedule tonight to come up with some good matchups in D1 Boys. I found 2 games:

Central at Merrimack - rematch of last year's state championship game. Merrimack can give Central a competitive game, but do they have enough players who can score to keep up with Central for 32 minutes?


Memorial at Bedford - The game every one wanted to see 3 weeks ago in the QCIBT championship. Nobody knows Memorial better than Fitzy. It seems Coach Quirk has the Crusaders concentrating on playing basketball and not on other distractions. This is just a very fascinating matchup.

A couple of good matchups tonight in D2:

Hollis Brookline (6-1) at Portsmouth (4-2)
Oyster River (5-2) at Pelham (5-2)

I'm headed to Berlin for Somersworth @ Berlin - it's the battle of the Mascots Who Climb Things, as the 7-1 Hilltoppers take on the 7-1 Mountaineers. If I'm risking life and/or limb by traveling through avalanche country,YOU BETTER LISTEN!

On a semi related note, the last time I was in Berlin's gym, it was in my former career as a pro wrestler- I battled "Turbo" Tim Fury and Chi-Chi Cruz in a 3 way dance, and (as a bad guy) read the following haiku to the crowd:

Berlin: Here We Are

Boy, This Town Sure Does Smell Bad

I Can't Wait To Leave

When the crowd lustily booed, I looked out in shock and said "BUT I WROTE IT FOR YOU!!!!"

Anyway, hope you tune in!

I'm going to be at Central vs. Merrimack. I think this is going to be a great game! Another game, for me, to look at is Alvirne at Exeter. I feel that one of these 2 teams might be that tourney spoiler/thorn in some teams side. Exeter is starting to come togeter and I'll be keeping my eye on this one.

Anyone is free to join me at Merrimack!

Cannot wait to go to Merrimack tonight. Central is going to play a better game than when they played in the 3rd place game in the QCIBT. Central was done 3 points going into the 4th quarter and only won by 7. Go Little Green

Central beat Merrimack 52 - 47. The game was tied at 38 at the end of the 3rd.

Trinity beat West 94 - 42.

In a big D4 game Derryfield won by 6 over Epping 52 - 46.

Can't wait to hear what Justin has to say about the interesting happenings in Berlin......

Tully will like this one:

I heard the Memorial - Bedford game was a real tight one until Tong hit back to back 3's to give memorial some breathing room and the eventual victory.

For those of you that don't know, Tulliver's choice for POY for the last 1 1/2 years has been Tong.

I was at the Central/Merrimack game and it was a very entertaining game. Both teams fought incredibly hard and Central edged it out when Merrimack couldn't quite tie it up with under a minute to play.

My other game of the week, if you will; Exeter beat Alvirne, 59-56. Exeter won 2 times since the Xmas Tourney and might be that team that becomes a thorn in a team's side. I am very interested in what happens with both of these teams.

Actually, Alvirne beat Exeter.

Oooh, must've read the Tweet wrong...oops! But still I am still watching those two teams as they could make a difference down the stretch.

I believe I had Tong as most underrated player last year - but he is the Crusader's POY in my opinion

Junior John Noon { another Merrimack kid} had 6 three balls coming off the bench last night for the Green and Gold.

This squad is much more then Jeff Lunn { 24 pts and 22 boards} . They have alot of kids who know their roles.Migs has them playing as a true team.

Toscano is another kid who has thrived this year. In years past, he was his own worse enemy. This season he is a leader for this young squad.

Boykins will be back sooner then later which was good to hear.

Timberlane had a lead with three minutes left in the 3rd quarter against BG. BG is the better team, but definitely a tougher Timberlane team this year. That streak will end this year and they may even get more than one. South is still my pick, though it is hard to ignore what Trinity has been doing to teams.

Have a combined record of 16 wins and 57 losses as of this morning.

It is possible that 10 out of the 16 teams that make the tournament have a losing record. Probably it will be 7 teams, but it could end up being 10.

I don't recall that ever happening before in division one.

Tuesday and Friday wrote:Can't wait to hear what Justin has to say about the interesting happenings in Berlin......

This was something else. It was 6-4 after 1. I started googling the rules of Rugby, because it was anything goes in the first half. 20-17 at halftime.

The final ended up being 70-57. FT Stats were Berlin 33/57. Somersworth : 26/30. IN A 32 MINUTE GAME.

3 Techs were called on Somersworth,1 on Berlin. The local Berlin sports writer was apologizing for the officiating. I think the final 5 minutes took 35 minutes or so to play, literally everything in the 2nd half was a foul. It wasn't really favoritism, but sheer incompetence, with the home team getting more calls since generally that's what will happen with bad refs.

It was really a shame, Somersworth (and myself) traveled 2.5 hours to have a potentially great game between two 7-1 teams, and have that game spoiled by the way it was called (or NOT called in the first half).

Neither team really learned anything about themselves, other than the ability to walk to the free throw line when instructed.

87 free throws in a 32 minute game? That's a lot.

Any good 4 or 5 star restaurants in Berlin?.......

Tuesday and Friday wrote:

Any good 4 or 5 star restaurants in Berlin?.......

Nope just 1 star, but that takes you to Bethlehem