My salute to Clint Eastwood, or this Friday Jan 20th games

Three very distinct groupings for this weeks games.

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

THE GOOD- Four contests fall in this category.

Spaulding at Memorial. Spaulding has been hot lately. I like them in a close one.

Trinity at West. Trinity gets revenge for QCIBT.

Salem at North. I'm still not sold on Salem.

South at Pinkerton. South needs to start scoring more points. I like Pinky.

THE BAD- Pretty obvious.

Concord at Winnie- You couldn't pay me to go to this game.

Dover at Londonderry. I'm gonna be sick.

BG at Exeter. Winner of this game STILL has a LOSING record.

THE UGLY- Games are over before they started.

Timby at Alvirne. Does anyone remember the last time Timby wasn't dreadful? Bonus, this game is on Thursday. Think I'll stay home.

Keene at Merrimack. Long drive to get there. Longer drive home.

Nice to see you correlating movie icons to NH high school basketball.

As Clint would say:

"OK, you did 2 things wrong. One, you asked a question. Two, you asked another question."


The Spaulding at Memorial game is very interesting. These are 2 teams, that in the end, might be fighting to gain a prelim home playoff game. Memorial doesn't have any body who can matchup well with Paradis. Memorial must cut down on turn overs in order to win this game. Spaulding is disciplined and well coached and will take advantage of any extra possessions the Crusaders give away to them. Memorial must get points off transition and force Spaulding turnovers to get easy baskets. I get the sense the Crusaders are not too comfortable in a half court game.


Salem at North: You are not sold on Salem. I'm still not sold on North. Let's just call this the "sell out" game.


BG at Exeter: Exeter gave West a pretty good fight in losing by 3 last Friday. Barr had 30 points in a losing effort. I shudder to think what would happen if BG lost on the road to a team they should beat. If BG loses this game I will turn on the Forum and peak through my fingers as if I'm looking at a Saw horror movie.


Trinity at West: A good part of me says Trinity exacts revenge for their QCIBT loss to West last month. I don't think Trinity could play as bad as they did against West in December, but West is at home and you do have the injury factor with Viscarello. Who's going to play Bureau defensively for Trinity? That would be Viscarello under normal circumstances. I'm calling this a pick em game since it is at West and the Blue Knights are much more comfortable playing in their retro, dimly lit, Braveheart mural and netting hanging down low at center court gym. I think Trinity eeks out the W.

South at Pinkerton: A show me game for the Astros as in trying to show D1 they belong in the upper echelon with a W over South. This game is important for South too. These 2 teams will be battling for #5 to #8 seeds for the next 6 weeks.

Allow me to add Portsmouth @ Souhegan to the "Good" section (and not just because we'll have the game on WTSN and wtsnam1270.com ). Two undefeated teams, a rematch of last years D2 Semi-final, and maybe a preview of this years D2 Final 4!! Good stuff in Amherst tomorrow night.

At least it better be, that's an hour and a half drive from Rochester for me!!

JustinMcIsaac wrote:Allow me to add Portsmouth @ Souhegan to the "Good" section (and not just because we'll have the game on WTSN and wtsnam1270.com ). Two undefeated teams, a rematch of last years D2 Semi-final, and maybe a preview of this years D2 Final 4!! Good stuff in Amherst tomorrow night.

At least it better be, that's an hour and a half drive from Rochester for me!!

That should be a great game Justin. Well worth the drive. There is much more separation in DII this year than there is in DI, and these two teams should be in the Final 4 come March IMO. Will be interesting to hear your take.

Halftime West 20 Trinity 16

End of 3rd Memorial 41 Spaulding 34

End of 3rd West 43 Trinity 34

BG down by 3 at half to Exeter......Oh boy

Memorial beats Spaulding by about 14 snd looks impressive doing it.

West beat Trinity 63 to 59

Bedford over Pelham with the lopsided score of 60-35?? Would've never guessed after the last outing I went to last time.

I heard BG beat Exeter

Pinkerton beat South

A friend and I took a ride over to Amherst to see the Souhegan-Portsmouth battle of D-2 unbeatens. It was worth the trip. Portsmouth wins 55-43 in a game that was closer than a 12-point game. Portsmouth jumped out to an early lead and held that lead at halftime 27-21. Souhegan rallied to tie the game 36-36 at the end of 3, and looked like they had all the momentum (along with a loud and lively student section) on their side. A big 3-ball by PHS senior Charlie Duprey early in the 4th put the Clippers ahead, and they slowly pulled away.

Billy Lane was the player of the game for Portsmouth, with several slashing drives to the hoop, many turning into 3-point plays. Billy is more of a football/track athlete who happens to play basketball, but came through for the Clippers tonight, as Kamahl Walker had an off night. Brandon Len was as good as advertised for Souhegan, taking the ball to the hoop against much taller players.

I wouldn't be surprised if these two teams see each other again in the tournament.

The BG-Exeter game was a story of 2 halves. Coaches will understand when I say at one end there was a lid on the basket. In the first half it was in the direction BG was shooting. Lots of missed bunnies and strange bounces. At the end of the 1st period Jimmy sent Marty out to ask the referees to recheck the ball - it was kind of humorous. I think it was a 4 pt Exeter half time lead something like 24-20 perhaps. The second half - different story - BG came out with a bit more passion and the other hoop didn't have the lid on it. Exeter though now was shooting at the lidded basket. They may scored 6-10 in the 3rd, while BG was able to build up to a 8-10 point lead at times. The fourth was more of the same - Exeter battled to within 4, but BG was able to withstand and extend their lead using fast breaks off of turnovers or missed shots. I don't believe BG is fully through the drama - it's a work in progress. Some aren't focused on D at all while others O abandons them for long stretches. Teams are attempting to force BG into half court sets and that part of the offense isn't quite flowing yet. Many times it looks like bad passes, but that could also be a player not being where they are supposed to be on a set.

Good recap of the Pinkerton / South game: http://www.unionleader.com/article/20120121/SPORTS/701219995

Salem 60 North 35:

Still not sold on North. Gauthier and Farmer still out. 8 of North's final 12 games will be against teams that are above .500 right now. Salem is quietly having a nice flying under the radar season. Not much publicity for this team which is playing solid basketball. You have to point to Coach McLaughlin and the impressive way he has coached the Blue Devils to playing hard nosed ball for the last 1 1/2 years.

Memorial 54 Spaulding 39:

I may turn out wrong, but I don't see Spaulding putting together another post season run this year. Memorial was in control of this game for the majority of the 32 minutes. Spaulding made a couple of runs in the 2nd half, but the Red Raiders couldn't compete athletically with the Crusaders. It's imperative for Spaulding to get a home playoff prelim game if they want to play in the quarterfinals. Outside a victory at BG, Spaulding is starting to look like a team that plays more comfortably in the beautiful town of Rochester.

Pinkerton 58 South 56:

This was a tempered good victory by Pinkerton. Muccioli did not play. Pinkerton is on my radar, but on the outer edges. Get back to me after a few more tougher games for the Astros. One good development for the Astros is they are healthier this year and Patrikis is putting up numbers. Patrikis could be one of the most important players to a team's fortunes in D1.

BG 61 Exeter 49:

At least BG got a W in this one. This coming week is the most important one so far for the Cardinals. They host an improving Memorial team on Tuesday and then have to visit the Catholic Cauldron of Trinity on Friday. Make or break week for BG? Absolutely. Go 2 - 0 and BG is back in the discussion. Go 0 - 2 and the BG season could be on life support.

West 63 Trinity 59:

A huge home victory for West which further validates this team as a possibility of getting a top 4 seed and certainly a home prelim playoff game. West can beat anybody in D1. At this point no one would feel comfortable going to their gym for a prelim or quarterfinal game. They are a very difficult team to match up with. Trinity's front line on the other hand has shown once again that the word ENIGMATIC will dog them for the rest of the season. Some Trinity faithful would use the word DISAPPOINTMENT to describe the Pioneer bigs. It just is not right to receive updates on Trinity games and hear their front line combining for less than double digits at halftime. At this point of the season I would use the following terms to describe the Trinity 3 bigs:

Unfulfilled talent
Soft
Potential lost cause

Feel free to play the game of connect the dots.