QCIBT Results

Merrimack blew out Bow.

Dover beat Exeter 50 - 48. Dover had a 12 point lead at half time.

Trinity beat Central 64 - 61 in OT on a Zach Stevens 3 pointer with 3 seconds left in OT. I started watching this game at half time. Trinity had a 37 - 25 lead at the break. Phil Hayden injured his ankle in the first half and did not come back to play. Duffley, Viscarello and Lafond all shouldered the point guard load for Trinity. Central played old fashioned Little Green defense to get back in this game. Ferge, Brown and Melendez helped lead the defensive surge for Central in the 3rd period as the Little Green out scored Trinity 18 - 7. Ferge, Melendez and Wickey hit key shots to erase the Trinity lead. Ferge looked very good handling the ball and shooting for Central. Melendez played very good defense on Madol. The 4th period was tight with ties and lead exchanges. It was tied in the last minute of regulation and it looked like Trinity might play for the last shot when Duffley took an ill advised 3 pointer with 27 seconds to go. The shot barely drew iron and a mad scramble ensued with Zach Stevens banking home a 5 footer to put Trinity up by 2 with 18 seconds left. Central calls time out and goes full court. Thaddeus Brown is fouled on a shot attempt with 5 seconds to go. Trinity calls TO, but Brown knocks down the FTs to send the game into OT. The teams trade baskets and the OT comes down to Trinity having the final possession. Central left Stevens open for an elbow extended 3 which he net drained with 3 seconds to go. Central couldn't get a TO granted and Trinity gets the W. Duffley was injured on a freak play on the sidelines before Trinity had their last possession. He did not come out for the last play.

This was a very entertaining game. It proved that Central might be better than their pre-season rankings on different sites. Wickey looks very good. He is a little leaner this year and has added quickness to his step. He can knock down a medium range jumper and looks good when he dribble drives to the hoop. Brown is very athletic and can play big men on opponents to take the defensive pressure off Wickey. Ferge, Lacount and Melendez form a nice back court for Central that can score and defend. Madol was kept under wraps by Central in the 2nd half. Zach Stevens finds a way to score in an opportunistic way. Dylan Lafond played very good defense in the second half and had 4 nice steals along with a nice And 1 drive to the hoop.

Memorial 48 West 37

West - 8 5 12 12 - 37
Mem - 6 11 17 14 - 48

West had a fast 8 - 0 start as Memorial repeated their flat start they had at Trinity last week. Memorial seemed out of synch offensively for the whole first half. It's amazing the Crusaders had a 17 - 13 lead at half time with their caustic offensive 1st half. Memorial went with their bread and butter in the 2nd half in Shomari Morgan. Combining nice slash finishes with put backs and medium range jumpers, Morgan was the go to guy for the Crusaders in the 2nd half. West had no answers for Morgan as he wound up with around 20 - 24 points. West did keep it tight with some Abdalla 3's and Quinton Hunter slash finishes, but in the end Morgan proved to be too much for the Blue Knights. This game was not one to preserve on DVD. I think both coaches will not think back fondly on this game which produced a lot of turnovers, mental mistakes and hands that simply could not hold on to the basketball. Dan McLean played a solid game for the Big Man Committee for Memorial. Koester, Edhem and Landry all had their minutes, but it was McLean who turned in a good performance for the Crusaders.

Semi finals are Dover - Merrimack at 6:00 pm and Trinity - Memorial at 7:30. Nice matchups in a nice tournament.

Nice recap, T+F. I don't recall Ferge scoring at all today, though. Perhaps you're confusing him with LaCount, who handled the ball most of the game for Central, and was their second best player. I don't know if Central deserves to be ranked much higher. If Hayden didn't get hurt that game wouldn't have been as close. He contributes in so many ways for Trinity, controls tempo, etc. Lafond played better later in the game, but for most of the game you could see a big dropoff from Hayden to Lafond/Hamel.

Thanks Jeremy. Maybe I was confused a little. I had come off blowing a Fox 40 for 4 hours , so my eye sight, while razor sharp, might have dulled a little bit. Central had the Dover game won until Dover's deep 3 at the buzzer sent the game into OT. They almost over came a 6 FT personal/technical situation in the OT at Dover. I know Trinity has a drop off at point w/o Hayden, but I was really impressed with Central's overall team speed, athleticism and their defense. Wickey was very impressive. He did his offensive damage against Madol, who people were ready to annoint as POY on December 18th. Heh, I had Central ranked as 5 teams that could finish in 10th to 15th in my pre season rankings. This is just one more sign that there isn't a big gap between top tier teams and teams that you don't think are top tier teams. I don't think any score in Class L will surprise me this year.

One question Jeremy: Did Mr. Mitchell treat the officials with respect tonight?

There were no officials at the games tonight. That is why no one ever made it to the bonus. lol I thought they let way to much go and turned the game into a free for all. You could have called a foul on ever play of the third game. That was horrible.
PS, Your having vision issues from the stands? I wonder how your vision is from 94 ft? lol

I see the Basketball man is in mid season form with regards to extreme constructive criticism of basketball officials. I wouldn't expect anything less from the discerning eyes of the Mitchell Family. At least you're not quoting from the FIBA rule book any more. You are making positive gains on the basketball rule department.

There was one very interesting play that occurred in the 4th quarter of the Central - Trinity game last night that drew a collective gasp from the collective part of the audience that hasn't read a b-ball rule book:

There was a battle for a loose ball that went into the Central back court between Dylan Lafond and Audren Melendez. The ball was rolling from the division line to near to the top of the 3 point arch. Both players did a Greg Lougainis Olympic gold medal dive to secure possession. Melendez dove to the ball first, gained possession and slid about 8 to 10 feet on his stomach with the ball from the top of the 3 pt arch to the middle of the paint. Official Pat McCarthy correctly ruled no violation. He didn't have to give a hand signal, but because the play was so unusual and so important in the game he gave a signal that is similar to "play on" in soccer. The verbal rumblings in the stands were high ( I wonder what people from Milford were saying?). The slide with possession is not travelling. If Melendez would've rolled with the ball to either side then a travel would've been called.

From IABBO case book(God knows what the FIBA book in Milford says):
A1 dives for a loose ball and slides after gaining control. A1 is in position on his/her back or stomach. What can A1 do w/o violating?
Ruling: Once A1 has the ball AND IS NO LONGER SLIDING, he/she may not roll over. If A1 is flat on his/her back, A1 may sit up w/o violating. Any attempt to get to the feet is travelling unless A1 is dribbling.

The key term is AND NO LONGER SLIDING which shows the actual sliding with the ball is not a violation. What does the Fiba book in Milford say about this situation?

The refs miss that all the time , they call travling when a player rolls over while sliding and that is not a travel, you cant roll over after you stop sliding

G-Bear, wouldn't sliding and rolling over be 2 separate acts? I don't think you can do both at the same time. When you're sliding you are sliding. Rolling over would technically be the end of the actual act of sliding and the start of another act, with this being rolling over. Rolling over is travelling. The act of sliding is not traveling. When sliding is completed and some one roll overs then it's a travel.

Mr Mitchell was right and agreed with the no call based on the slide is considered a act of non control vs the roll over which is a travel. I even took the time to explain to the lesser experienced referee bashers in the immediate area. Another call that I have gotten correct.. Hmm seems like I get most of your rules violation challenges correct. Last night resembled football more than basketball way to often, it takes away from the game and is not how I feel the game should be played. In my humble and always correct opinion lol

"In my humble and always correct opinion lol" - ChicagoKid43

I believe the above statement contains an oxymoron, ChiKid.

Holiday tournaments are always officialed much more "relaxed". They have to keep a strict schedule to get 4 games in a day. Not saying its right...it's just how its done.

Just curious, do you think the decision is made by the refs or the guys running the tourney? I personally have never felt the strong desire or need to make sure a game didnt go over by a few minutes. I think that decision is just an excuse for referee's to makes sure they are only in the gym an hour and 15 minutes. Just my humble opinion!

You can be sliding oin your stomach continue to slide and roll over at the same time to make a pass and the refs blow it because they are terrible people, ha ha

Dover 69 Merrimack 66

Merry 18 15 12 21 - 66
Dover 26 21 7 15 - 69

Dover was on fire in the 1st half. They must have shot near 70%. Burt hit 6 of his first 7 shots. Every one on the Green Wave had the Burt-Touch as every thing was falling and Merrimack did their part by allowing Dover a lot of good offensive space in which to execute their shots. Dimitri floras had a good half for Merrimack and helped keep them within striking distance. Consider Merrimack's plight as they scored 33 points and were still down by 14 at half time. It seemed Goodridge's message got through to the T-Hawks at half time as Merry had a much better commitment to defense in the 3rd quarter holding Dover to 7 points. Even though Merry was down by 9 entering the 4th quarter they could've been closer as easier shots didn't bounce kindly on the Porter St. rims for Coach Goodridge's squad. Merry trailed by 8 to 12 points the majority of the 4th quarter. Once they got to within 6, but that was the closest they came until a last second 3 which gave them the game ending 3 point loss. Merrimack didn't play a bad game, but they didn't play great either. Maser had an excellent game playing under control and finishing a few slashes to the hoop. Watson didn't have his best performance which hurt, because points were hard to come by outside of the floras brothers and Maser. Hardwick had a few tough luck in and outs on drives. Burt was high scorer with 25+. Faustino did a good job defensively on Watson. Al-Darraji played well for Dover.


Memorial 69 Trinity 57

Trinity 13 14 10 20 - 57
Mem 11 14 18 26 - 69

Phil Hayden and Matt Couture did not play for either of their teams tonight due to ankle injuries. Memorial had their best 1st quarter of the season as they were ready to compete with Trinity from the start. They had a crispness to their offense early that was missing in their previous 2 games this season. Shomari Morgan set the tone for Memorial early with finishes around the hoop and a 3. Zach Stevens had a great start as he had 12 first half points. You could tell there wasn't going to be much to separate these 2 teams tonight. It became apparent that the team that could adjust to not having their starting point guard would have a big advantage in this game. At halftime only 3 people had scored for Trinity - Madol with 10, Stevens with 12 and Duffley with 5. Memorial had 5 people that scored in the first half. Desire and Martinez played key roles for Memorial in the second half. Martinez had 7 key points off the bench while Desire made Madol work for his 13 second half points and provided much needed rebounding help. Morgan once again became Memorial's steak and potatoes player as he had 15 2nd half points. Multiple drive finishes and put backs on 2nd and 3rd chances are the heart of this junior's game. Cormac Fitz had 14 2nd half points including going 8 - 11 from the line which gave Memorial a much needed cushion in the last 3 minutes. Edhem played well along with "hard luck" Dan McLean. It won't show up in the box score, but McLean defended, rebounded and hustled his way to one of the best 0 point performances you would want to see. He easily could've had 6 to 8 points with a kinder roll on the rim.

There was some interesting stuff in this game in the 4th quarter. It all started with a foul called on Trinity during rebounding action at the Memorial offensive end. After the foul was called and with the ref calling for the ball Madol rolled the ball towards the cheerleaders on the base line. The ref called for Madol to retrieve it, but before he could a cheerleader picked up the ball and handed it to the ref. A few minutes later Madol was defending Morgan with Trinity down by about 6 with around a minute to go. Madol was called for a block which he wasn't happy about. Madol again had the ball and again he rolled it on the floor away from the refs towards the far corner of the court. Madol was immediately assessed with a technical. Coach Keefe came to mid court and wanted to know what had just happened and he was given a technical for being out of the coaching box. Memorial hit 2 of the FTs and was fouled on the next inbounds and hit those 2 FTs and there is where you have your 10+ spread......... interesting ending to an exciting game.

Trinity - Madol 23 Stevens 21 Duffley 9 Lafond 1 bench sub with 3

Memorial - Morgan 24 Fitz 22 Edhem 8 Martinez 7 Zenni 4 Landry 2 Desire 2

So, it will be Memorial vs. Dover for the 2009 QCIBT Championship Monday night at 7:30 pm

Dover has never won a QCIBT Championship while Memorial has won 3 QCIBT Championships with the last title won in 1977. Dover has a 0-1 record in championship games with their lone championship loss to Exeter in 2007. Memorial has a 3-6 record in QCIBT Championship games. The last time Memorial won the QCIBT Championship in 1977 against Trinity the ending of the game was one for the books. Memorial had a 67 - 65 lead with under 10 seconds left. Trinity advanced the ball near mid court and Andy Paul, Trinity's best player and the 7th all time leading QCIBT scorer, was dribbling the ball. With 6 seconds left in the game Paul was called for a carry violation, except play continued because there was so much noise in the packed Memorial gym. Trinity still tried to get off a shot, but the ref that made the carry violation call came running into the middle of the confused players and showed the carry violation. Paul stood in disbelief while the Trinity sideline and fans exploded. Memorial inbounded the ball and ran the time out. The refs exited the floor as fast as they could, but a Trinity fan came out of the stands and put his hand on the shoulder of the ref who made the carry call. The ref was spun around and immediately a police man had the Trinity fan down on the ground and in hand cuffs while the refs expediantly ran into the ref locker room. To this day Trinity fans still talk about the carry call at mid court. If you go into the Memorial locker room where the Trinity team was and listen real hard you can still hear the faint sound of Trinity coach Don Beleski shouting his displeasure over the events of the last 6 seconds of that game.

As much as Memorial will have a difficult time defending Burt, Dover will have as difficult a task defending Morgan. Which ever team can find points from unlikely sources will win this game.

I will respectfully disagree with the Asst. and ChiKid about referees being lax in holiday tournaments to keep the tournament to a time schedule. When referees are working a holiday tournament game their focus is on that game they are working. They give no thought to what the time schedule is or if it will be a problem if the 7:30 pm game starts at 7:45 pm. You want to talk about keeping to a time schedule then look at an AAU Tournament. Some referees work 4, 5 and sometimes 6 games in a day. Their mental accuity is vastly decreased when they are on their 4th, 5th games etc. They let a lot go in that instance because their sharpness is decreased and they want to go home. When we were at an AAU Tournament, if it was after 12:00 pm I would always ask the referees what number game they were on. If they said anything above 3 then we knew the physicality would be increased with lesser calls and our defenders could really get after the other team. I have heard fans posting on this site and others that the refs "let a lot go." They have said this about Summer, Fall, regular season and Holiday Tournament games. So, there is really no time clock referees have in their head when they are refereeing 1 game in a Holiday Tournament. They are just doing their job and have no consideration for the master time schedule of any tournament.

Dover wins the QCIBT Championship 69 - 30 over Memorial. Matt Couture and Shomari Morgan did not play for Memorial due to ankle injuries. This was the largest margin of victory in QCIBT history surpassing the 26 point victory Central had in 1976 by defeating Portsmouth 71 - 45.

The 1st quarter was special as both teams went at it pretty hard. There was a bristling offensive pace to the initial period as it seemed if Memorial was going score 100 points then dover would score 101. Burt and Fitzpatrick put on a show similar to the Hassan - Roche duel that Central had with Merrimack about 5 years ago. That 1st period was #1 and this 1st period was #1a. Cormac Fitz seemed up to the task of carrying the Couture+Morgan-less Crusaders on his back. Dover assumed control at the end of the first and going into the 2nd stanza, but Fitz hit a 3 pointer that was launched from The Mall of NH that tickled nothing but twine. This drew Memorial closer to Dover at 29 - 20. From this point on Dover out scored Memorial 40 - 10. Memorial didn't have enough offensive ammo to keep pace with the Green Wave offensive onslaught.

It would be easy to say, "well of course Dover won the Championship because Memorial didn't have 2 of their 3 leading scorers playing." Full credit should go to Dover for playing at a high level in this game and taking care of business. They executed on the offensive end and dug down on the defensive end. They did not take the night off even though Memorial was short handed. The Green Wave are physically and mentally tough. It all starts with Coach Romps who wills his players to toughen up and ride out the frost heaves they encounter on the basketball court. The Dover players are a perfect example of a team being an extension of their coach.

My All tournament Team:

Burt and Al-Darraji - Dover
Fitz and Morgan - Memorial
Maser - Merrimack
Madol and Stevens - Trinity

Burt and Fitz are 2 of the best shooters I've ever witnessed at the QCIBT. They are certainly in a class with Tyler Roche, Corey Hassan and Keith Friel as far as pure shooting is concerned. Burt and Fitz will certainly have some input for the POY this season. There's a lot of water to go under the Class L bridge. Madol, Watson, Wickey and others have many games to prove they are worthy of the POY.

Good stuff, T+F. The first 5 minutes of that game tonight was a lot of fun to watch. After that though, it was all Dover. No Wickey on your all-tourney team? He played great basketball in all three of Central's games. Also Rory Duffy from Dover has to be in that discussion. Played great defense and was on fire shooting in all three Dover wins.

I thought about putting Wickey on the All Tourney team, but Central was one and done with 2 consolation games. I give more meaning to the quarters, semis and finals as opposed to the consolation games, especially the earlier ones. Consolation games are limbo games. Bench players get more time, intensity isn't there and coaches sometimes go through the motions waiting for the consolation games to be over. I've never taken consolation games seriously. Duffy did play well, but Al-D just seems to have a knack for hitting dagger baskets. He senses when the defense is concentrating on Burt and he finds a way to score. I have a feeling Wickey would rather be on an all state team as opposed to a Holiday Tourney Team.

There are no consolation games in Jan - March of 2010.

Thanks for the reports T&F nice job.

As far as the refereeing is concerned...I was not trying to insinuate that the refs get together and say "lets get this thing done in an hour and a half", I'm just saying from my experience, these holiday tournament games tend to be more loosely called. Obviously the flow of the game will also play a large part.

I can understand your point of view...maybe its just my limited experience in the coaching box that is giving me a contorted view

Just going to mention this score in this thread instead of starting an entire new one - BG over LeSalle Academy last night 81-64 in the Chelsea Tournament. They move on to play Sabis High School of Springfield MA in the tournament final today. Nice showing last night, Connor Green had 26 and Scott St. Lawrence finished with 13 and 8.

Some highlights from Sundays action at the QCIBT if you missed it and are interested:

WMUR QCIBT Sunday Highlights

We need to get WMUR some HD cameras!

And now highlights from last night have been posted. Also some Girls highlights, Central win the girls QCIBT over Trinity 35-19.

WMUR QCIBT Final Highlights

No problem Asst. I have worked at Holiday Tournaments facilitating officials for a few years. I worked with the Tournament Director ensuring the officials were cared for. Not once did I hear an official or Tournament director say we are running behind or we don't want to run behind so let's not blow the whistles in this game. Officials do concentrate on the game at hand with no regards to previous or future games in a tournament. I have heard fans/bloggers say that murder was comitted "on the court" in a 7 pm game that was the only game of the night and I've heard fans/bloggers say murder was comitted "on the court" at the 2nd or 3rd game of a 4 game schedule. It's easy to say the refs relax more with their whistles during a holiday tournament, but they don't.

One theme I see developing in these Holiday basketball games are some key bench players are receiving some unexpected minutes and valuable experience. Case in point would be the injuries to seniors Phil Hayden, Matt Couture and Jake Nelson. You have underclassman, like Martinez-Memorial, Lafond+Hamel-Trinity and Joseph+Muccioli-South, who are getting more minutes, handling the ball in pressure situations and scoring more in Holiday Tournament games, which will help their teams as the seasoned seniors come back from injury. In the short run these players can now produce quicker when the Class L pressure cooker games start up on Jan. 5th.

Absolutely right on that last point T&F. These holiday tourneys technically don't count towards the standings...so its a GREAT opportunity for a coach to learn what he has sitting on the bench. In essence, its a tryout for the 7-12 guys off the bench to get more playing time come the regular season. Most of these tournaments guarantee 3 games, that's 3 games a coach can play with combination's on the court, to find who's going to click together. If you win and advance, it's really a bonus, getting your kids on the floor, getting them some minutes against some teams they may have never seen before, or might not see in the regular season is a great opportunity to learn more about the team.

I won't say my above comments are 100% true...some coache's know what they have, and winning the QCIBT or some other tournament, and boosting your teams confidence might go further in the long run for them. The teams I assisted on always liked to give the kids on the bench some time to show what they had, and earn some playing time in the future. The kids knew they were going to have an opportunity, and really looked forward to these tournaments.

Next week you'll find most coaches go back to their 8 man rotation (depending on the team).

Final thoughts from Eric Emmerling on the QCIBT tourney:
Names Circled In My QCIBT Souvenir Program