2/12 Games

Here are the games on the slate tonight:

Alvirne at Concord
Londonderry at Bedford
BG at Pinkerton
South at Dover
Timberlane at Exeter
Merrimack at Keene
North at Man Central
Man West at Memorial
Spaulding at Salem
Winnacunnet at Trinity

Not the most star-studded, for sure, but still some interesting matchups! My boys going to Dover should be a good one, BG in a bad streak having to go to Pinkerton and that is no easy place to go and beat them there and I want to see if Spaulding can get back on track at the place where the rims are bigger, Salem.

I want to go and see Central and mostly likely will go there tonight!

I'll be at Coe Brown for Portsmouth Girls vs CBNA. Smith Gymnasium is a great place to see a game, very LOUD, with the Coe Brown band playing all your favorite 80's hits. I'll be requesting Men At Work on a 2 fer Tuesday...

I'll be impressed if that band knows any Fleetwood Mac!!!!! I'm a huge fan!!

Regardless, I would like to make that trip to Coe-Brown or back to Portsmouth (I've had my Special Olympics tourneys there!)

One of these days, I want to go to every High school gym in the state!

The South at Dover game is very intriguing. South looked Final four-ish vs BG last Sunday evening. It will be interesting to see how South responds to a hard nosed team playing in a hard nosed away gym..... Kind of similar if you are a 5 or 6 seed visiting a 3 or 4 seed in one of those blistering atmosphere's of a quarterfinal round playoff game.

South 77 Dover 74 big win for South.

Trinity wins by 20.

Memorial only beats West by 2. what's up with that?

BG boys beat Pinkerton by 1

BG girls beat Pinkerton by 15

Winner in parentheses:

Alvirne (71) at Concord 60
Londonderry 65 at Bedford (72)
BG (46) at Pinkerton 45
South (77) at Dover 74
Timberlane 38 at Exeter (79)
Merrimack (54) at Keene 42
North 61 at Man Central (78)
Man West 57 at Memorial (59)
Spaulding 58 at Salem (62)
Winnacunnet at Trinity

I was at Central and Central looked like a championship team for about 65% of the game. North starting to switch from man to Zone after Central got out to an 11-4 lead in the first 4 mins of the 1st quarter! North did their signature pressure and kept bringing the lead down to 4 pts (and thats the lowest lead besides the beginning of the game) and than North stopped making shots and Central (usually Dawson Dickson) hit a big 3 or a 2 and foul by someone. North tried but didn't convert when opportunities were there and they missed A LOT of them! But sometimes during the middle part of the game, Central got a little careless in the pressure and either rushed a shot or turned it over. Central also played great defense.

On a GREAT note: Mike Martineau scored a BASKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've gotta feeling the basket that Mikey got was a total swish !!!

After a few tries...off the window and than a SWISH! The gym ERUPTED!!!

Salem beat Spaulding big upset

That is a big upset, Gbear.

I've been telling GNG once Salem got a healthy Andrew Ruffen, then they would get a few surprise victories. Well, here's one. I don't think too many people expected Salem to come away with a W in this game.

Read the splurge in the Telegraph about BG beating Pinky with Lunn scoring only 6 pts but had 11 rebounds! Freshman Zimmerman lead the way with 16 pts! Wondered how Pinky did it!

It doesn't surprise me Pinkerton held Lunn to 6 points. At thjis time of year it comes down to matchups. Pinkerton is one team that can throw one 6'5 or 6'6 kid at you in droves. It's no secret Lunn is the #1 option for BG and their #2 scoring option is by questionable committee. BG escaped with this victory. They were down by 5 with just under 2 minutes left in the game. Pinkerton obviously concentrated on Lunn and forced any one on BG, not named Lunn, to beat them and it almost worked. BG is holding on to 7th place right now.... Very tenuously. They need Boykins back and they need more consistent scoring from players, not named Lunn.


Meanwhile, South went on the road and got a huge 77 to 74 win at Dover. Jack Preston had another impressive performance with 30 points to lead the Panthers to the big road win. Even the most ardent cardinal supporters have to admit this was a big week for Jack Preston in declaring his nomination for the POY. The Telegraph box score has the trio of the Preston brothers and Dunham combining for 66 points. Remember what I said about South last Sunday. If Dunham scores it makes them a very difficult team to beat in the 2013 D1 Boy's landscape.


Merrimack got a nice road victory at Keene 54 - 42. Eric Gendron scored 31 points as Merrimack quietly continues to have a very impressive year in defending their state title. You can also mark down Eric Gendron as moving up the POY charts on a fast ride.

T&F, Gendron has been on my short list for POY since the first time I saw him play! He has done everything for his team and especially making his teammates better! Merrimack plays as a team and probably the best team in the state in doing so! They are surely showing me that they might defend their title if things stay good.

Dover is starting to slip from being one of those potential Cinderella teams of the playoffs with the mental mistakes and losing a double digit lead (great job Panthers on the win!!).

I don't believe Salem over Spaulding is really an upset. I guess statistically speaking it may be but Spaulding really isn't that good. They remind me of Mike Tyson back in the day. When Buster Dougless knocked him out the facade was over and everyone started pounding him.

Merrimack and Central seem to play the best TEAM basketball which makes them difficult to beat. Good ball movement, good adjustments and disciplined on offense and defense. It helps to have a stud which they both do but what seperates Pelletier and Gendron is they do a little bit of everything to get their teams over the hump on a nightly basis. That, I believe, is what makes them the top two contenders for POY.

Congratulations to Mike Martineau for scoring a hoop....it was awesome Nashua North showed a lot of class last night as well.

You know dj5hoop, I don't know why you seem to have it in for Spaulding, but please choose your words more wisely when talking about these players and teams. For the record, Spaulding is one of the most respected programs in D1. Tim Cronin is one of the most respected coaches in D1. He develops players and the program with out benefit of the transfer carousel that is omnipresent these days in the Queen City programs. These Red Raiders are high quality kids. If you knew the personal tragedies some of these players and coaches have had to overcome the last few years it would blow your mental socks off.

They might not win championships, but Spaulding plays good team basketball and has one of the highest player character quotients of ANY BASKETBALL PROGRAM IN THE STATE OF NH.

So, please keep this in mind with future postings. Some times is just not about the Ws and Ls, but about being there and in the end making a difference in a teenagers life as they grow to become a responsible adult.

I've said this before and I'll say it again. Be just as classy while you lose and when you win.

I apologize for the way I said it and I didn't mean it to be disrespectful. I believe I have stated they are always well coached in an earlier post and I have a lot of respect for their program. I shouldn't have singled them out as many teams have compiled a good record against some of the schools who are having a down year. I guess what I should of said was nothing seems to be much of an upset in Division 1 this season. It seems every team is capable of beating anyone depending on the night. I used the Salem game as an example, however, it could of been applied to many other teams as well. Memorial almost lost to West last night and Central was on the brink of losing to Salem last Friday. It's just one of those years where everyone seems to have a chance on any given night.

I'll throw Bedford and T&F's beloved Lancers into the conversation about playing good "Team Basketball".

Spaulding - I have nothing but admiration for Tim Cronin. He's a quality and classy guy. I'm glad that we're all expressing that today.

I'm going to hijack this a little and say that anyone who was in the Simon Gym last night would have to say that Steve Lane is pretty dang classy as well.

Lane knows what it takes he played for big time college and pro coaches he played for URI with Garrick and company, the kids play hard from him he will develop a great program.

Guess which one is my cousin?


I will give you a clue I love to stand next to him in pictures because I look tiny next to him.

It's all about SPORTS in NH,mostly high school sports. It's a GREAT SHOW. I will be calling in soon to bust his cookies.

Anyhow, last nights guest was the forum's own mmartineauchs2013. He was FANTASTIC.

His old jv coach called in. My friend used to coach him freshman season. He loves the kid.

Issaih called in. Mike said his appeal had been turned down again yesterday.

Dawson called in. You could tell how much this kid is LOVED by his TEAMATES.

The kid knows his hs hoops inside and out. The hour went by to quickly. Once again. GREAT JOB MIKEY.

The forum members getting from the press lately.

Gotta love it.

That was a classy move by coach Lane.