Feb. 19th Games

Now, that some things are becoming clear in the class L standings I'll put an official rank, according to record, next to the teams:

#10 Salem at #15 Exeter: Salem is fighting for a 1st round home game while Exeter is fighting to make the tournament. Exeter's last 3 losses have been a double OT to West, 1 point to Londonderry and 1 point to Winny. Exeter is a dangerous 4 - 9 team.

#3 Trinity at #9 Alvrine: I guess Trinity should "coast" in this game if you listen to the Assistant . I think Alvrine might have other ideas for the Pioneers. Do you really see the Broncos pulling an upset here?

#10 Londonderry at #12 North: Here's a classic pick em game with prelim home court ramifications dripping from this contest. North had a troubling loss to Memorial last Friday. Londondery has won 3 out of their last 4.

#1 Winny at #7 Dover: Seacoast rivalry game oozing with drama. 2 potential 1st team all staters in Gould and Burt. Al-Darraji vs. Dunn. Maybe, I could knock off 2 things on Friday. Attend this great matchup and buy a used car in Dover also. Dover is the used car capital of NH.

#3 Pinkerton at #3 BG: St. Lawrence, Green and McLung vs. Mathieux, Proulx and Patrikis. By my calculations that's about 38 and 1/4 feet of big men battle in the Colligidome paint. This is a good big men matchup. There will be a lot of play above the rim. No lack of intensity from certain individuals in this game either. There could be a lot of hornet's nests stirred up in this game. Chad Park's play will be key if the two front courts negate each other.

I'm sure nobody is listening to me after my preseason predictions and assessment of the Nashua Telegraphs reporting

That said Dover/Winny is calling my name. Yet to see Winnacunnet and Dover is playing very well lately...

I'll always listen to you Assistant. That's what unconditional blogging liking is all about.

T&F, Your insight is what keeps me coming back to this blog.I had no idea that Dover sold so many used cars.While you are in Dover, I will have you covered over at lund rd with 2 cans of hornet spray.There is a history here with the guards,last year in the semi's of the jv tourny bg was up 11 in the 4th when Cuipa,Remillard, and Kelly fouled out within a minute of each other.Pinkerton won by 1.These kids have waited a year to see the Pinkerton point guard again.Expect full court pressure the whole game.Make it 3 cans of hornet spray.My upset special is Alvirne over Trinity.

Big Guy - I'm still hedging where my car will turn once it hits the highway at around 5:30 pm tomorrow. 101 East to Dover High or 101 West to Everett Trnpk for the Colligidome which could be renamed:

The Hornet's Nest

I have a few cans of super hornet spray that kills on contact up to 25 feet. That would afford me comfort in my seat while dispatching of any hornets flying around from stirred up nests from Cardinals and Astros.

Both the Pinky at BG and Winny at Dover has great matchups and great characters in the stands. It's a toss up right now.

Go to Dover,you can see BG next Tues at Memorial {my alma marta},or next fri when Winnie visits.I am curious to hear what you have to say about Winnie.Talk about a 1 loss team that is flying under the radar.

I have seen Winny twice in their victories over Memorial and West. They beat both Queen City schools by a combined margin of 31 points. I'm still trying to figure out if it was more Winny or the fact that both West and Memorial didn't play their A games on those particular nights. Winny is similar to Princeton. Motion, elbow pick, back side pick, yawn, yawn yawn, back door cut and bingo 2 points for a layup or dribble drive. You have to be defensively patient against Winny. As soon as you over reach or let down mentally on the defensive end they hit you. Gould is 1st team all state right now. Dunn is 3rd team or honorable mention all state. They have a solid crew of supporting players in Munson, McGrail, Dolan and Cronan that do their job without fanfare. Knowles has toed the line this year and bought into the team concept that Coach McKenna preaches. McGrail seems to hit 1 or 2 dagger 3's in most games. The last 2 years of drama has solidified them in the trenches of the games they play in. They don't panic. They are not overly big. Their closest wins and their 1 loss have been against teams with a bigger front court or a proven center. This will be a key to watch when the Class L brackets are announced. I would think Winny would prefer to stay away from size and proven centers in their potential matchups in their bracket.

I just went over to the other side of the basketball fence in Class I and ChiKid is attacking newspaper reporters like he does referees. After reading the build up for the Bedford at Milford game and the sausages in the Milford parking lot my car could stay on 101 West to travel to the quaint town of Milford.

Darn you NHIAA for putting everything on Tuesdays and Fridays !!

alvirne is going to have a rough time on friday as i hear from an inside source g/f joe ohearn is out 4 weeks with a broken hand. This is big because he usually brings the ball up and with out that more pressure is going to be on lambert to take care of the ball against trinitys defense. I just cant see alvirne keeping it close, donnelly will haev to go off for them to keep it close. Madol will be dominate on the inside. I may be wrong but thats my opionion. Trinity by atleast 15

I can confirm your source. I've heard the same. Also Sweeney has been out this week and its looking like a gametime decision depending if he's even in school tomorrow.

Regardless, Coach Bonney should have his kids ready to go Friday night.

big players step up in big games so i wonder who is going to step up for the broncos tonight

The problem for Alvirne seems not to need 1 guy to step up (most nights that's Donnelly, he does his part) but who's going to score 8-12 points as a secondary option. I look for Moyen to be that guy, or David Skinner who is capable of scoring the basketball as long as he plays within the system.

The interesting matchups of the night should be Moyen/Skinner on Madol and whoever guards Stevens and vice versa. I would expect possibly Donnelly might matchup with him. I don't think whoever Alvirne throws at Madol will be able to stop him, its really going to come down to the secondary matchups. I still like Trinity in this one but homerism is rooting for the Broncos.

with ohearn out and sweeny a game time decision it will be tough. Usually its ohearn who is the secondary scoring option behind caleb. Moyen usually gets his 8-10 skinner can score but i think is more in there for rebounding than anything. I saw the game against central and he did a terrific job on the boards. He works hard and he gets usually 4-6.

And i agree Madol is going to be tough to stop tonight. If sweeny is in he might help but madol is going to be to quick so again i agree moyen and skinner are going to have to step up. I agree caleb should be on stevens but trinity still has a lot of other weapons besides those two. It should be an interesting matchup trinity likes to get out and run alvirne likes the play the halfcourt and pound the inside. Ill be there maybe bronco country will have a large turnout like the did against BG.

Dover over winny 71-56.
First, Knowles did not play for winny, not at game.
Dunn fouled out with 5-6 minutes left in game.

Second, it was one of the worst officiated games that i have seen at any level.
I do understand that winny fouls alot with the pressure defense, but to have five players have 4 or more fouls is ridiculous!
The officials had Dunn, Mcgrail and Gould with three each in the 1st half!
Dover had only 4 fouls in the 1st half!

Dube played agreat game on gould, and with all the foul problems, winny couldn't dig themselves out of the second half hole.
I am not taking anything away from Dover, who played a solid game, but i am sick of refs thinking the game is about them and not the players.
And last, whay are the refs allowing coaches to wonder on to the court repeatedly during fouls shots, inbound at the other end etc.
This year i have seen more coaches 4 feet or more on the court coaching way out of the so called coaches box.

Bg beat Pinkerton by 12. Close game until last three minutes when BG was up by six and finally did not shot. BG knows what it wants to do and does not hide it. Pinkerton on the other hand did not seem to know if they wanted to slow it down or try to run with them.

Trinity blew out Alvirne.

Central over Goffstown I believe as well.

Trinity beat Alvrine 53 - 31

Central over Goffstown by a significant number.

It was awkward to watch, but kudos to the Grizzlies for playing until the end and good luck to them in the future.

BG 70 Pinkerton 58

Pink 16 15 17 10 - 58
BG 20 15 16 19 - 70

There were some interesting things that happened in the first period. There was 20 players combined that played in the first stanza. It seemed like Coach Rosinski tried to match BG sub for sub and wanted a fresh team in the 2nd half. This first period had to set a record for substitutes coming in and out and in and out and in and out and........ you get the picture. BG was fouled 3 times in 3 point land. How many times do you see that in 1 game, let alone in 1 quarter. Kelly was fouled on one and amazingly McClung was fouled on the other 2 three point attempts. They combined to hit 6 FTs of the 9 attempted. Even though it was 20 - 16 at the end of the first it felt more like a 12 - 8 1st period because of the number of fouls and substitutions. McClung had 9 in the first to lead BG and Proulx had 8 to lead Pinky. BG was 8 - 12 from the line in the first which was the difference.

Pinky continued to sub freely in the 2nd period. Patrikis was very active for the Astros as he complimented the big 2 of Proulx and Mathieu. The 2 front lines negated each other in the first half as BG's had 24 while Pinky's had 19. Pinkerton's backcourt players did very well in the first half as Park, Colbert, Williams and Light combined for 12 points and actually outplayed the BG back court players in the first half.

Pinkerton decided to go with a more set rotation in the 3rd period and even though they outscored BG 17 - 16, the lack of substituting would eventually catch up to the Astros in the 4th period. Proulx and Mathieu were tired in the 4th period. Patrikis was invisible for the majority of the 2nd half. The Big 3 of BG had their second wind while the front court of Pinky was gasping on their first wind. Pinky shot the ball poorly in the 4th period. The aforementioned 4 backcourt players for the Astros only combined for 4 points in the 2nd half. Park's shot was off and even when he had some good looks he decided not to shoot (lack of confidence). This put a lot of pressure on Pinky's front court to score. McClung had an outstanding 2nd half with 14 points (Can you say 1st team All State). McClung at 6'3 is very versatile with his offensive game. He can hurt you in the paint and he
can hurt you in the 3 point area. The more I see him the more he reminds me of the game former NBA great Rick Barry had. Barry was a small forward who won an NBA Championship with the Golden St. Warriors. He had some inside/outside to his game and was slender with a lot of offensive skill. McClung has this slithery, curvy wurvy funk to his offensive game when operating around the hoop. He is a matchup nightmare for any team in the state, especially when St. Lawrence and Green are on the prowl.

With 3 minutes to go in the game BG was up 61 - 55 and Pinkerton had the ball. Looking like a tired fighter on the ropes Pinkerton was searching for anything offensively to keep them in the game. Proulx took a tired ill advised 3 pointer that looked very rough. BG rebounds, takes the ball down and runs 1 minute off the clock with Green getting fouled. He knocks down both FTs with 2 minutes to go to give BG the 63 - 55 lead and the game was over at this point as Pinkerton floundered offensively for the next 2 minutes. It was interesting to see Pinkerton transform from a BG substituting wannabe in the first half to a more set rotation in the second half. I think this played a big part in Pinkerton only scoring 10 points in the 4th quarter. A lot of Astos were leaning on their shorts and slow getting back on defense in the 4th period.

Pinkerton - Mathieu 22 Proulx 15 Patrikis 5 Light 6 Williams 4 Colbert 4 Park 2. 14 - 25 from FT line.

BG - McClung 25 Green 17 St. L 12 Cuipa 5 Folger, Coumas, Turner, Font., Pyzocha with 2 each and Kelly 1.
23 - 36 from the FT line

abball, what happened in Hudson? Did Sweeney play?

I know the Broncs were gonna go with an inverted triangle and 2 on Madol and Stevens. Didn't look like it worked as Madol jumped out to 10 or so after 1 I think I heard from WGAM. My guess is not having O'Hearn to help bring the ball up, score and be the team leader he is was really tough for them.

Any report?

Salem 58 - Exeter 54

Alex LaRosa pumped in 14 fourth-quarter points including six late free throws as Salem held off Exeter, 58-54. LaRosa had another monster game with 34 points while Joe Gallant (ankle) came off the injured list to notch a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
Game Statistics:

Salem (58): LaRosa 8-14-34, Gallant 6-2-14, Cannone 2-0-6, Lorenz 0-2-2, Klecan 0-0-0, Henrick 0-0-0, Meisser 0-0-0, Matthews 1-0-2, Baldwin 0-0-0. Totals 17-18-58

Exeter (54): J. Holler 2-0-5, Vigars 7-2-17, B. Holler 1-0-3, Fecteau 6-0-13, LaRoche 1-0-3, Munro 5-3-13. Totals 22-5-54

3-pointers: S — LaRosa 4, Cannone 2; E — J. Holler, Vigars, B. Holler, Fecteau, LaRoche

Dover 71 - Winnacunnet 46

Not really a surprise. No Harry Knowles, he was sick I think. Played in Dover. Winny still reeling from their recent loss of former coach Jack Ford. I know McKenna was at the funeral earlier today and it's been a tough week for this team.

Merrimack 58 - Concord 35

Looks like Merry rebounded nicely from their defeat to the hands of Trinity.

Londonderry 48 - Nashua North 42

In what was a pickem game Lancers win by 6. Either of these teams are dangerous to win one or two in the playoffs however.

Manchester West 74 - Timberlane 53

Not much to write here, score was expected.

Manchester Central 61 - Goffstown 43

Actually surprised this wasn't a closer game with no Wickey for Central. Makes you wonder what the heck really happened when Goffstown beat Memorial.

Other stuff...

Speaking of Memorial...anybody got a score for their tilt with Spaulding?

No real upsets tonight, and no, Dover beating Winny is not really an upset. A little surprising? Maybe, but not an upset. There are very few games this season I'd classify as upsets. Too much parity.

ill try my best to give a summary not going to be as well as the others but here we go. Trinity started fast right out of the gate. Already 4 mins in it was 12-2 and at that point madol had more blocks then alvirne did ponits. Alvirne came out flat, and thats how the whole game pretty much went. The cut it to close with about 4 mins left in second half but trinity called a quick timeout and right after scored like 6 unanswered. The second half alvirne played most of their bench players and trinity would just melt the clock very boring second half. Tough night in bronco land. Sweeny actually started but he didnt do to well dont think he scored at all and if he did it was maybe two points at the most. The start of the second half sweeny was on the bench and he continued to be he sat the whole second half from where i was sitting it look like one of the coaches gave him a good talking to he was pretty upset. Donnelly was the only offensive threat tonight but even he had a tough time getting open looks he atleast had half if not more of there points. Stevens played well on him. Trinity shot very well from deep madol hit about 2 in the first and at one point the hit about 3 in a row. Alvirne just couldnt cover anyone. Skinner didnt play well. Madol is legit its the first time i saw him play this year and he is very good. There wasnt many bright spots but beauliue( butchered it) played very well off the bench for the broncos. he played good d and had about 8. Baldwin also played pretty well. The loss of joe deff affected them they couldnt run anything. It was embarrassing at one point in the second half they were just passing the ball back and forth on top of the key cause the couldnt get a play called. Trinitys d shut them down the played zone most of the night which was strange cause i have never seen that out of them before the played a 2-3. Alvirne couldnt get the ball inside and had to settle for outside shots and they werent hitting.

Wickey played for CHS.

In fact... there were quite a few moments where he simply reached over heads and plucked the ball from the air.

Goffstown is a plucky and developing team with coaches who were teaching their players the game and how to get better. They also kept them in it until the buzzer soundeed.

Goffstown almost beat West a few weeks ago and they are the type of team that won't let down no matter how much of an underdog they are. That's a great thing to see in a program and I think they're building a strong foundation.

Thanks Tully...for some reason I keep messing him up with Stisser. I think that means I need to go see Central play, one of the few I've missed this year.

Great report abball, keep em coming!