March 2nd games

Is it me or all of a sudden I feel like, “Here I am stuck in the middle with you?”

As in…. Clowns (ChiKid) to the left of me, Jokers (Big Guy) to the right of me and “Here I am stuck in the middle with you?” These 2 seem to be having effervescent postings with me in the last couple of weeks concerning referees, yearbooks, foot races and of the like. I guess the season is coming down to the wire and nerves are being tested. Only kidding Kid and Guy. You know I send all the hoop love I can to you two.

Here we go heading into the last week of play:

#12 Alvrine at #13 Londonderry: A pick em game for sure that will finalize the seedings for double digit seeded teams. The last time these 2 teams met their rankings were just about the same as Alvrine hosted the Double Digit Seeded quarterfinal game last year after these two teams upset Central and Pinkerton on their home courts in prelim playoff games.

#16 Goffstown at #6 Dover on Monday and #18 Timby at #6 Dover on Tuesday: I grouped both of these games together because if Dover takes care of business at home the next 2 nights then it will solidify them for a prelim home game and possibly a quarterfinal home game if things work out in the final week.

#14 Spaulding at #15 Exeter: Exeter will try to give their room in the Tough Loss Motel to Spaulding. Fresh sheets and towels please?

#11 North at #10 Central: Another pick em game that will be close from start to finish. Melendez coming back from injury will be needed to negate the sophomore Titan backcourt. Pratt and Wickey will be the 2 key players here. Who ever scores more points might lead their team to a tight victory.

#3 BG at #7 West: Usually you would feel confident for West playing at home. After the recent Blue Knight turmoil you would have to think the West team confidence is shaken. In a perfect HS hoop world this would have been a match up of 2 of the top 4 teams in Class L and probably would have been the game to go to on this night. In the real world this game probably becomes a 14 to 16 point victory for BG if the missing parts for West aren’t in their basketball engine.

#3 Merrimack at #16 Goffstown: If Merrimack doesn’t take the Grizzlies seriously this game could be a lot closer than it would seem on paper. Goffstown is playing to build their program for next year and they play hard. Merrimack is playing to shake off the cobwebs of 2 big losses last week.

#17 Keene at #2 Winny: A lot of hoop fans would rather see Winny win this game if only to not see Keene slip into the 16th seed by way of 2 questionable wins over 2 – 14 Con Val from Class I.

#1 Trinity at #3 Pinkerton: The marquee game of the night. What a battle between Madol and Mathieu. It would be too easy to state this match up will decide the game. I prefer to look at the back courts of the 2 clubs to find the keys to winning this game. It seems as if Pinkerton’s backcourt players are becoming better each week. They’ll need to be really good if Pinkerton wants to come on top of the Pioneers on Tuesday.

March 3rd #10 Central at #13 Londonderry: This game is rescheduled from the snow storm of Feb. 16th. Is it my imagination or does Central have 2 tough games every single week? And they either win or lose these games by 5 points or less? No rest for the weary Little Green as they will have played Exeter, North, Londonderry and Salem in the span of 7 days once they complete their regular season schedule on the night of March 5th. I wonder if Central might get a preferred rate at the Tough Loss Motel once this week is over?

T@F, I am sorry that I have been posting alot,it's just that you have so much sports knowledge, and I like to give you proper kudos.I mean you only know about half of what I know in the world of sports{including high school},but that is still quite a bit.You should be proud.If you need updates from the BG game, my cell is 913-year I graduated,cecil coopers number.That's right your not that big of a sport junkie,instead of cooper's number,use the number of the hall of famer who grew up with the Neikro brothers,went to Ohio st,played for the celtics,his nickname was Hondo.

BG 61-48 OVER WEST.Valentin started and was announced as a senior for senior night.He was a non factor,the bright spot for West was their senior big man,I think his name is Asselin,he took at least 6 charges. Mclung had 25,green 19, Scotty had 4 fouls early in the 3rd and did not foul out.Hard to believe this team only had 5 losses going into this game.

I heard from a credible source Valentin has been pretty sick with a TERRIBLE cough.

Could be a factor.

Thanks for the update though... I think the BG West game, Memorial South and Trinity & whomever they were playing (escapes my mind)
are the only ones not on NHIAA

South beat Memorial in OT, Scotty M hit a 3 to tie hit in ot but South hung in there. South finally played their best lineup of Nelson, Both Mucciloi, Basora, and Joesph for must of the second half and they truly out played memorial with that lineup in the game.

It is really to bad South had the injury bug hit so hard with Nelson and Basora playing 3 games together all year. BG, Merrimack and Now Memorial.

per nhiaa

Pinkerton OVER trinity

Alvirne 56
Londonderry 48

Central 52
North 44

Salem 75
Concord 40

Salem 20 20 16 19 75
Concord 9 8 8 15 40
Game Statistics:

A (score): LaRosa 6-3-19, Gallant 4-2-10, Cannone 1-1-4, Lorenz 1-0-2, Cleaken 0-0-0, Henrick 0-0-0, Meisser 3-0-9, Jake Matthews 3-2-9, Williams 5-2-12, Jared Matthiews 1-2-4, Meisner 0-2-2, O'Shaughnessy 1-2-4. Totals 25-16-75

H (score): Seigel 2-0-5, Martin 2-2-6, Woods 1-1-3, Yeng-Jesus 5-0-10, Owen 1-1-3, Lynch 2-2-6, Beuchmen 1-0-2. Totals 16-7-40

3-pointers: S — LaRosa 4, meisser 3, Jake Matthews, Cannone; C — Seigel


Dover 73
Timby 52

Exeter 63
Spaulding 58

Winny 63
Keene 48

Trinity 55
Pinkerton 66

Trinity 15 6 20 14 55
Pinkerton 16 12 16 22 66

Game Statistics:

Trinity (55): Descoteaux 0-1-1, Stevens 1-0-2, Lauderdole 0-1-1, Madol 8-3-19, Duffley 4-0-11, Hoyden 1-0-3, Biscarello 4-0-12, Hamel 2-0-6. Totals: 20-6-55

Pinkerton (66): Park 3-6-14, Colbert 0-2-2, Williams 1-0-2, Light 1-0-2, Patrikis 7-2-16, Proulx 5-1-13, Mathieu 7-3-17, Sullivan 0-0-0, Curry 0-0-0, Batchelder 0-0-0. Totals: 24-14-66

3-pointers: T — Duffley 3, Biscarello 4, Hamel 2; P — Park 2, Proulx 2.

Pinkerton 66 Trinity 55

At the end of the first quarter it was Pinkerton 16 David Madol 15. Madol had spin moves inside, he had a soft touch from 15 to 18 feet and he knocked down 3 of 4 from the line. It was amazing to see Madol score all of Trinity's points in the first period. This was with Pinkerton mostly playing a box and one on the POY candidate. Mathieu had a solid first quarter with 8 points. Trinity was cold in the 2nd period, but Pinkerton didn't capitalize on this until the end of the first half when they took a 7 point lead to the locker room. 2 funny things happened in the 2nd quarter. Madol's minutes were decreased and in the last 2 minutes of the half Coach Keefe put out an interesting lineup that consisted of 4 guards and a small forward and then 5 guards. Both lineups excluded Madol. It was like Coach Keefe was telling the Pioneers that at some point in the playoffs they'll have to go an important stretch with out Madol or maybe even win a game without Madol. During this time Rosinski decided to take out Mathieu and Proulx. It was a Twilight Zone 2 minutes for sure. Madol was shut out in the 2nd period. Unfortunately, Zach Stevens sustained a knee injury when he went down hard after being fouled on a layup basket by Proulx. Stevens did not return to the game. He will have the knee looked at once the swelling goes down in a couple of days.

Trinity decided to go 3-ball against the Pinkerton zone in the 3rd period. Duffley hit three 3s in the first 3 minutes of the second half. The 3rd one gave Trinity their first lead in a long time with 5:15 left in the 3rd. Hamel also hit two 3s in this period. Patrikis had a big quarter with 7 points. Proulx had 7 also. The Astro front line set up each other well in the paint. This was one of the best stretches I've seen Patrikis, Proulx and Mathieu have all year. Pinkerton took the lead back from Trinity. Madol scored a basket with about a minute and some change left in the 3rd. This was his first points in about 15 minutes of play.

With Trinity hitting five 3s in the 3rd it forced Pinkerton to go man. With nobody in foul trouble Pinkerton was able to play in your grill man defense and they took Trinity out of their offensive flow. Pinkerton limited Trinity to 1 shot as the Astro froncourt controlled the defensive glass in the 4th quarter. Pinkerton soon pushed the lead to 8 and then into double digits as they kept Madol under wraps again in the 4th. Patrikis had a big and 1 3 point play that helped the Pinkerton run. Chad Park hit a couple of key baskets. With Trinity down they were forced to take shots they wouldn't take normally and Pinkerton again OWNED the defensive glass. Park hit 6 out of 8 down the stretch to maintain a comfortable lead for the Astros.

The story of this game was Patrikis with 16 and Park with 14 combining for 30 points. When these 2 score and you get the usual double-double games from Proulx and Mathieu Pinkerton is difficult to beat. When Stevens went down this forced more playing time for Lauderdale and Aluko. They were no match for one of the 2 best front courts in Class L.

Now my mind has no clue who the best team in Class L is right now. It doesn't make any difference if you finish 1 - 4. Pick a team, any team. #1 today and who knows what tomorrow. The POY is up in the air also. Maybe there should be a 2 way or 3 way tie. No player has distanced himself drastically from another 3 to 5 players. When they give out the L championship plaque at about 5:30 pm on March 20th maybe it should say the team who survived the 2009-2010 Class L season because that's what this year's Class L champs will be: a survivor.

I want to mention what a bad thing the basketball Gods might have dealt to Trinity junior Zach Stevens and his knee injury. Zach is a class act with a capital C. Any one who knows hoops in this state knows what a nice young gentleman Zach is and what a true sportsman he is win or lose. To see him on crutches after the game with the ice bag on his knee is just not fair. He is one of the good guys and I hope he recovers from this injury.

Nice sitting with T & F at the game tonight! Here's my account of the "Class of the Class L Titans". Enjoy! www.fnlnh.com

I'm glad the forum is bringing people together. Both of you did excellent recaps...thanks!