January 10 Games

It looks like the marquee game of the night is on the girls side, with Winnacunnet traveling to Bishop Guertin in a battle of unbeatens. Will tonight be the night the lady Warriors' long winning streak comes to an end?

Other interesting boys' matchups include Central at Trinity and Salem at Pinkerton in Division 1, and in Division 2, Portsmouth hosts Milford in a rematch of last year's championship game, and Pembroke looks to knock Kingswood from the list of unbeatens. In an interesting inter-divisional matchup, D3 Campbell travels to D2 Pelham, with both teams sporting 4-1 records in their respective divisions.

Just a note to any forumites who are planning to attend the BG-Winnacunnett game tonight, although the Union Leader article stated that the game starts at 7 pm, I believe the game actually starts at 6:30 pm. That is the time listed on the BG website, and most Tuesday night games start at 6:30. Should be a good one.

Halftime Winny 30 BG 27.

Green has 11 to lead BG. O'Neil has 11 to lead Winny

End of 1st and defesive struggle at Trinity: Trinity 8 Central 4

End of 3rd BG 48 Winny 40. Green has 24 points.

Half Trinity 21 Central 17

3:30 left at BG: BG 59 Winny 52

The streak ends at 84.Final BG 74 Winny 66.

Meghan Green had 37 points. One of the best individual performances I've ever seen in a girl's high school game. She certainly made a big g statement for POY.

Kirsten O'Neil was outstanding in a losing effort with 24 points.

Central 38 Trinity 36 1:44 left in game

central beats trinity by 1

Wow - some great games tonight. Congratulations to the BG girls on stopping the Winnacunnet streak, and to the Warrior girls for putting together such an amazing run.

Portsmouth boys over Milford 65-42. The Clippers jumped out to a 9-1 lead and were never really challenged.

Assuming the NHIAA web site is correct: Goffstown 98, Brady 58. 98 points???

D3 Campbell over Pelham 51-48.

In girls D1 every team plays 1 team twice. For BG the team they play twice is.........

................Winnacunnet.

One of the best basketball games I have seen this season! Congrats to BG girls for tonights win, but the game to win is in March!
The key to BG win was the ability to break the press, as many girls teams don't have someone that can throw the ball lenth of court!
The Green girl was awesome tonight, inside and outside.
Also, the BG defense on morrison girl reminded me of Gary Payton, the glove, as the girl covering her was all over her, not letting her get the ball or shot off!
We will be lucky, as the weird schedule this year has them playing again in Feb, so two evenly matched teams.

Here's your historic box score:

Winny - 12 18 10 26 - 66

BG - 15 12 21 26 - 74


Winny - Kirsten O'Neil 24 Anna Sullivan 12 Carly Gould 11 Melissa MacLeod 8 Aviana Morrison 7 Jacqui Lewis 4

BG - Green 37 Jamie Sherburne 15 Gigi Piercy 8 Megan Kerutis 6 Niki Hayner 4 Madison Gibbs 4

Here is a breakdown of Meghan Green's superlative performance:

1st quarter - 8 points on 4 FGs and 2 missed FTS.
2nd quarter - 3 points on 1 FG and 1 - 2 from FT line.
3rd quarter - 13 points on 6 FGs and 1 - 2 from FT line.
4th quarter - 13 points on 6 FGs and 1 - 1 from FT line.

Salem beat Pinkerton 64 - 57. I might call that a mild upset.

I understand Dawson Dickson hit a big 3 pointer with about 17 seconds left in the game which proved to be the winning shot for Central.

The biggest keys to the huge win for BG was:

1) Meghan Green's performance

2) The young backcourt of sophomores Sherburne and Piercy along with freshman Kerutis handling the pressure of the Winny press. There were times they made it look easy. They constantly broke the press and had numbers either with Green finishing or Sherburne slash finishing to the hoop.

3) Limiting Aviana Morrison to 7 points. The Winny sharp shooter did receive some looks, but she had to work really hard to get them. BG did a great job of putting a body near or on her and made Morrison expend a lot of energy to get open.

4) Gigi Piercy came up big. Whether it was handling the Winny defensive pressure, scoring some big hoops or getting some rebounds, Piercy had a nice overall game for the Cardinals.


Thoughts on the game:

- Meghan Green almost looked like a big sister playing against her smaller sisters. Carly Gould is a very good player. Gould will make all state. Green had her way with her all night. Green already has a ready made D1 college body as a junior. Gould and other Lady Warriors just couldn't handle Green's size, strength and skill from start to finish. What is scary is that Green could have actually scored 50 points or more tonight. I'm not kidding. Even though Green had 11 points in the first half she missed a lot of in close shots, including a bunch in the first quarter. She could've easily had 20 to 24 points at halftime if she shot 45 to 50 % in the first half.

- Kirsten O'Neil was outstanding in defeat with 24 points. She might have the best overall game of any guard in D1. She can shoot and slashes to the hoop with authority and strength. There were times in the game when her and Green were trying to settle the POY debate during this game.

- Niki Hayner, even though she had only 4 points, has a nice shot and had tough luck on quite a few attempts. I can't imagine this team clicking with Green on the inside and Hayner from the outside. With D1 defenses now zooming in defensively on Green for the rest of the season, Hayner will get ample opportunities to drain her nice looking jumper.

- Anna Sullivan tried to do in the paint what the majority of her mates couldn't do. She posted up heavily in the 2nd half and drew many fouls on BG defenders. Winny tried to take Green away from the hoop and in turn posted up Sullivan against her BG defenders time and time again. It worked as Sullivan went 6 - 10 from the line and scored 8 points in the 2nd half.

- Jamie Sherburne is a green and gold Ferrari with a basketball in her hands. She slices and dices defenses all while going a 100 miles/hour. She is the straw that stirs the Cardinal's drink. She has a knack of collapsing the defense and then making the right pass to the right lady at the right time. I was very impressed with her basketball motor that didn't run in over drive too much..... Just fast enough to out distance the defense and make plays. She lets the game come to her in a fast paced way.

- These two teams each scored 26 points in the 4th quarter. There were times in this game where 4, 5 and 6 baskets were scored within 30 to 60 seconds. Jeremy's right hand man, Mr Kesty, said after the game, "You didn't even need a shot clock for this game." He was 100% correct.

- Scary to think the starting five for BG are 2 juniors, 2 sophomores and a freshman. Their first 2 subs are juniors. I'm going out on the limb and making BG my pre-season #1 for next year. Don't forget to add North transfer, Paige Parkinson, to this mix next season, if that situation gets sorted out between North and BG.

- Does this mean BG has a gold paved path to the championship? Not so fast my friend. I'm sure it is kind of a relief for Winny to lose a game. They don't have to concentrate on the streak any more. They can now concentrate on basketball and what they have to do on Feb. 21st when they host BG and try to turn the basketball table. One thing I know is that Winny will have to have a different defensive scheme for Green. Another thing I know is that Aviana Morrison will probably shoot the ball better in the Winny gym on Feb 21st. One last thing I know is that I would love to see these 2 teams play in the Final Four or the Final Two at SNHU in March.

Check out the Central 41 Trinity 40 box score from the NH Sportspage. Dawson Dickson is listed for scoring 3 points for Central and Trinity. I hear you Dave Haley. It is tough keeping up with Transfer City in the Queen City


Trinity
Sylvere Aluko 4
Mabor Gabriel 10
Carmen Giampetruzzi 6
Jake Hamel 3
Patrick Keefe 4
Andrew Lauderdale 5
Ian Sistare 8
Hunter Viscarello 0
Dawson Dickson 3


Manchester Central
Christian Artiga 4
Junior Brown 9
Luis Burley 3
Dawson Dickson 3
Gabe LaCount 15
Troy Pelletier 8
Mike Plentzas 2

I was at the Pinkerton / Salem game. Pinkerton had the lead until the final minutes of the game. Every time Pinkerton got ahead by 5 or so points Salem came back with some big 3 point shots to stay in the game. At the end Salem hit back to back 3's to pull ahead. It was a fun game to watch. Salem played very hard. They are an undersized team, but tough.