January 15th games

OK, so the big game between Dover-BG is almost yesterday's news. Time to think about the Friday games:

Central at Alvrine: Something says to me this could be an upset special. Alvrine is 3-1 and Central is 1-3. If I'm Central I'm pounding the ball mercilessly into Wickey and making Sweeney and Moyen stop him or get into foul trouble.

Exeter at South: How about if some one told you that before the Thorpe transfer and the Nelson injury that these 2 teams would lose 7 of their first 8 games?

Pinkerton at Londonderry: Pinkerton needs this rivalry win big time. Londonderry is very content motoring along with a 3 - 1 record and not having too much said about them. Proulx and Mathieu will combine for their usual 30 to 40, but what will the Pinky guards do for scoring?

North at Merrimack: The Merrimack people know they have a tough fight coming from the Titans. Coach O, Pratt and Rancourt have to get the super sophs to play under control in order for the Titans to hand Merry their first loss.

Winny at Memorial: A pick em game that will come down to the last few possessions. The Crusaders could sure use a healthy Morgan. The Dunn-Couture match up will be interesting. The Crusaders will have to keep an eye on Knowles. He has the potential to come up big in this game.

Trinity at West: The Blue Knight gym will have a nice atmosphere for this one. If West upsets Trinity I am personally going up to the NHIAA office to start engraving Sam Ca..... in the space under 2010 Class L Coach of the Year.

Winnacunnet over Memorial tonight 45-29, Gould with 19 for the Warriors. According to WGAM the fourth quarter was won 2-0 by Winny. Not sure if I trust their "tweeters" on that one...

Merrimack beats North 66-48

Shocker Special: West over Trinity 53-41

Another Shocker (I think): Nashua South over Exeter 60-49

Timberlane over Keene 57-53

Pinkerton defeates Londonderry 53-40

Asst - the 4th quarter was 4 - 2 in favor of Winny. Memorial emptied the bench with 4 minutes to go in the 4th. If you are a Memorial fan that 4 letter word was omnipresent tonight: UGLY.

I debated whether to go to the Trinity-West game or Winny-Memorial. I lost in the good game sweepstakes as I went to Porter St. West beats Trinity? Now, I have to rearrange my schedule next week to go to the NHIAA office and secure the 2010 Coach of the Year award to start engraving Sam Carey's name on it.

Interesting, 4-2 is pathetic for Class L Varsity hoops no matter who is in the game. Tough one to watch I bet.

Winny 45 Memorial 29

Winny 11 16 14 4
Memor 5 12 10 2

The first quarter was cut and dry. Memorial scored the first 5 points of the game on a Couture 3 and a Fitz 2. Winny then scored the next 11 points to close out the first period with a 6 point lead. With 5:30 left in the 2nd period Fitz went up strong for a defensive rebound in the paint and he came down awkwardly hard on his ankle. He left the game for a few minutes and was attended to on the sidelines. He came back in with a couple of minutes left in the 1st half, but was hobbled. Winny took a 10 point lead into the locker room. Gould was the man in the first half for Winny with 9 points. Dunn had some nice assists and played his usual hard nosed game.

Memorial remained cold in the 3rd quarter as a hobbling Fitz and a sub par Morgan took it's toll on the Crusaders. Winny maintained tough defense and limited the looks for Memorial. The Memorial big men had chances to score down low to get them back in the game, but they couldn't convert. Memorial probably went about 8 to 9 minutes with out scoring at the end of the 3rd and into the 4th quarter. The bench for Memorial was emptied at the 4:00 minute mark of the 4th period and with Memorial down by 16. This made sense as the ankles of Morgan and Fitz certainly weren't going to get any better during this stretch. An ugly performance for the Crusaders. They can use the week off to get healthy. They'll need it as a difficult test comes with the Lancers next Friday.

Gould 18 Knowles 7 McGrail 8

Fitz 8 Zenni-Morgan-Desire with 4 each and Couture 3

South started Cody Wyatt at the point tonight and it might have woke up the team he only played about 8 minuted but did ok.

Jared Maloney sophomore center also started and finished the game for South

Louis Mucciloi played his best game of the year. He had at least 16 points.

Joseph finished the game at point and did a good job int he 4th quarter.

Tucker Munroe played very well for Exeter. Holler was a bit chippy including picking up a late intentional foul pulling Joseph shirt with 6 second left.

Correction: WGAM is reporting Jake Nelson is out till early February. They'll need to play most their season without Nelson, but if they get him back in early Feb they'll have a chance to make a run in March.

Salem gets a big win vs. Spaulding (much needed win to set them straight) 68-49. Eagle Tribune has the box: http://bit.ly/4pSqBe

Keene/Timberlane box score: http://bit.ly/7CT9Io

I know Hayden might not be 100% and Duffley didn't play for Trinity, but when you look at the box score and see that West held Madol to 5 points and Stevens to 9 points, then you have to give some serious credit to the defensive efforts of West last night. West will be a team that will be extremely difficult to play in their tightly packed gym. With their atlhletic team condensing offensive space for the opponents and a loud home crowd, no trip to the west side of the Queen City will be easy for any L team.

Some of the teams West will be hosting in the next 2 months are Memorial, Londonderry, Salem, Exeter and BG. These teams can now mark the trip to West as a much more difficult task as they originally anticipated.

Jake is getting the boot off Jan 28th but wont play right away. The Spaulding game might be the one but if not that one he could play in the BG game.

WGAM did another fine job interviewing 6 Class L coaches last Saturday morning. Some interesting information from the interviews:

Doc Wheeler said:
- He's used to having great decision makers playing for Central. Right now he doesn't have great decision makers, but they could develop as the season moves along.
- He wouldn't want to be Keene coming into Central this Friday.
- "Get us know, you're not going to want us later."

Tim Goodridge said:
- Dimitri Floras is as good as a freshman as Cory Hassan was as a freshman.

Nate Mazerolle said:
- Feb. 1st is the date Jake Nelson comes back to the team. He doesn't know at what capacity Nelson will be available to the team, practice, a few minutes in a game or more.

Sam Carey said:
- One of the keys to beating Trinity on Friday was that, while Gonzalez and Asselin might not have the skill of Madol and Aluko, that they muscled them in the paint and took the Trinity bigs off their game.
- How it would've been a perfect evening if his expecting wife had delivered their 3rd child after the Trinity victory. I don't know if she's still expecting or has delivered, but Carey talked about balancing coaching the team and dealing with his wife's situation.

Jay McKenna said:
- Ryan dunn is the hardest working player he's ever coached.
- Jesse Gould is right up there with the best players in the state and draws the toughest defensive assignment every game, including holding C. Fitz to 7 points last Friday.
- Has a very cohesive team that has learned from being so resilient the last 2 years.
- Tiffany Ruffin could definitely play on the Winny boy's varsity team.

Now THAT is a "change" worth petitioning to NHIAA. I would love to see Ms. Ruffin suit up for the Winny boys...and that's is not in any way a shot at his own players, she's just that good.