Dover at Alvrine Monday Jan. 25th

I don't know how this one slipped through the scheduling and information cracks, but Dover is playing at Alvrine tonight at either 6:30 or 7:00 pm. This game got rescheduled because of something to do with Dover hosting St. Thomas on Wednesday. So, if your schedule permits you have 4-2 Dover visiting 4-2 Alvrine tonight. It should be an interesting game. Both teams are tied for 6th along with Pinkerton and Memorial. Both teams are coming off of tough losses on Friday. This is one of those games that can go a long way in determining a top 4 seed for the playoffs. Another non-Tuesday and Friday game.

T & F, where did you read or hear this? According to the NHIAA website Dover and Alvirne are playing tomorrow night. Although this would make sense, where Dover does play St. Thomas on Wednesday.

T and F told me he confirmed this with a parent of a player on Dover.

Jeremy, I was as surprised as you when I found out, but the Dover bus is heading out of the Dover High parking lot at 3:30 pm. I'm not shocked at NHIAA not having the update on their schedule. Sometimes they have a last minute schedule change and sometimes they don't. I guess it came down to the scheduled game with St. Thomas on Wednesday at Dover. I wish this would happen more often. It's what we hoop guys crave for: more games other than Tuesdays and Fridays. This has been a pretty good run of non-T&F games with BG-Dover, Ports-Milford and now Alvrine-Dover. Unfortunately, with the last minute notice I can't go to Bronco High tonight, but please post details if any of you go.

What's funny is that highschoolsports.net has the game change, but not NHIAA. On HSS.net they have the JV game at 5:30 and varsity at 7:00. This means nothing because as soon as the JV game is over they put 10 to 15 on the clock for warmup and then tap off. I've gone into a couple of gyms this year at 7:00 pm sharp and the Varsity game had 1 or 2 minutes left in the 1st period.

Good game going at Alvrine:

End of first: Tied at 17

Half: Alvrine 33 Dover 29

End of 3rd: Alvrine 54 Dover 53

Dover 65 Alvrine 64 1:29 left in game and Alex Burt has fouled out

Alvrine 68 Dover 67 33 seconds left and Alvrine has the ball

Final: Alvrine 69 Dover 67

Burt picked up his 5th foul on a blocking foul on the base line with about 3:30 to go in the game.

This games shows how equal many of the teams in Class L are this year.

Kevin Bonney's club is still trying to find itself...they've still got a lot of the big dogs left on their schedule...

One thing that I noticed last night is that Junior big man Sean Moyen did not see the floor in the first half. Started the second half and was very effective with 8 points, a few nice passes into the post on the high low set with Sweeney and several loose ball battles. Not sure why he was benched in the first half but to me this makes Alvirne's win even a better win. Had he played the entire game you can make the argument that the game would have swung more toward Alvirne. When Dover was forced to foul they chose him and while he missed both after the rebound wasn't secured he hustled and chased down a loose ball and called a timeout to regain possession. That led to a second foul from Dover this time putting Sweeney on the line to hit one and miss the second. Dover was out of timeouts so they were forced to rebound and heave a full court shot. Shot was not even close and Alvirne takes a tough battle.

Losing Burt for the final 3 minutes was a big issue for Dover as you might expect.

It's a long season. Nerves get tested with 5 to 6 practices a week. You have the academic part and college choices that need to be made and oh, by the way, there is still a family life to be a part of away from the court. You will see players sitting out halves and sometimes games due to things happening at practices, school, locker room or between coach and player. It happened with Watson last Friday in Dover and I'm sure we'll see more instances like this in the future. Just as Green is on crutches, Nelson coming back from his foot injury and players sitting out games or stretches of a game, it's all part of a LONG basketball season.

No idea about Moyen...but kids miss practice for LOTS of reasons, some justified, others not...but lots of coaches have policies that even if you are excused from a practice you miss playing time.

I remember when I was playing, if you missed a practice, the next one I always felt like I missed out on something, and that the team was moving ahead without me (which of course they did for that practice). Worst feeling, I hated it.