Girl's D1 Prelim Playoffs

If you are waiting for the brackets for the D1 girl's playoffs to come up on the NHIAA web site, you might have to wait a little longer.

Word has it they still haven't decided who the #1 seed will be: BG or Winny. With the scheduling quirk (no relation to the leader of the Lady Crusaders of Memorial) of BG and Winny playing each other twice this season, each beating each other once and defeating all the other teams on their schedule...... We have a complete DEAD HEAT tie for 1st in D1 girls.

They went through 9 tie breakers and at the end it was another DEAD HEAT tie.

What I heard is that a coin flip will decide the #1 seed. It might be the first time it has ever happened in the history of NH high school basketball. The stakes are high since who ever finishes 2nd most likely will play the tough Londonderry club in the semis. There are also ramifications for Memorial/Pinkerton in the coin flip. If these 2 teams get by their prelim opponent they will match up on Saturday March 3rd at 7 pm at Memorial. Each of these 2 teams match up in different ways, positively and negatively, against either BG or Winny for the potential Final Four semi #1 v #4/5 game at SNHU.


I just hope there is no Jerome Bettis/ Thanksgiving/ Detroit Lions "I said tails" controversy when the coin flip is held.

T@F I bet you didn't know that if a coin is being tossed,and your the chooser, always choose the side that's initially face down. That would give you a 51-49% advantage.

Useless Stuff that most people don't want to know, or don't care to know, I know.

I hope Coach Beattie and Coach Hazelton read the NH Sports Forum.

The ninth and final tiebreaker listed under By-Law Article XII is "As determined by the sports committee." I guess that's the coin toss, but I can't believe it will come down to that. According to those by-laws, the tiebreakers go by rating and not record, meaning just because both BG and Winnacunnet beat Concord, for example, that win isn't treated equally, thanks to the extra point given for road wins.

While they come out even in the first tiebreaker, it sounds like the second one - rating against tournament teams - will be what decides it. If you look at what each team did against the 15 other tournament teams, BG had eight home wins (32 points) and seven road wins (35) for a point total of 67 and a rating of 4.467. Winnacunnet had nine home wins (36) and six road wins (30) for a point total of 66 and a rating of 4.4. Therefore, the No. 1 seed would go to BG.

You could say that because BG went "on the road" to beat Nashua South, while Winnacunnet played the Panthers at home, the Cardinals get the No. 1 seed.

And of course after I said all that, Winnacunnet will be the No. 1 seed when the NHIAA posts the pairings tomorrow.

I talked to 2 D1 head coaches who's teams are in the playoffs and they said it would be a coin toss. They could be wrong, but this is what they wre under the impression would happen to determine the #1 seed.

Speaking of NHIAA girl's playoff's, Meghan Green is 23 points away from reaching the 1,000 point mark, and she's still a Junior. She could possibly reach it during Wednesday's opening round game, although if you're at the game you won't know it because the NHIAA prohibits the recognition of 1,000 point scorers during playoff games. Green also has roughly 800-900 rebounds in her career. The last time a girl reached 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in NH was probably Stephanie Murphy from Londonderry. Green is positioned to end her career with 1,500 points and something like 1,200 rebounds.

NHhoops wrote:Speaking of NHIAA girl's playoff's, Meghan Green is 23 points away from reaching the 1,000 point mark, and she's still a Junior. She could possibly reach it during Wednesday's opening round game, although if you're at the game you won't know it because the NHIAA prohibits the recognition of 1,000 point scorers during playoff games. Green also has roughly 800-900 rebounds in her career. The last time a girl reached 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in NH was probably Stephanie Murphy from Londonderry. Green is positioned to end her career with 1,500 points and something like 1,200 rebounds.

It's not exactly true that "you won't know it". Here's the rule:

20. 1000 POINT SCORES:
The game shall not be stopped to recognize a 1000-point scorer at any time during a tournament game at any round. An announcement can be made, signs can be held up and a brief ceremony can take place at the team bench area immediately after the game. Schools may purchase the tournament ball for $40.00.


Looks like you can do almost anything short of interrupting the game for a ceremony. While many of us may question a lot of the NHIAA's rules / actions, this one seems reasonable to me.

Tuesday and Friday wrote:The stakes are high since who ever finishes 2nd most likely will play the tough Londonderry club in the semis.

I do agree that the #2 seed would have tougher games in the quarters and semi-finals compared to the #1 seed. Not only would the #2 team have to play Londonderry in the semis (although I wouldn't be surprised if North beat Londonderry in the quarters), but the #2 seed will also have to play Dover in the quarters as opposed to Keene/South/Central. If I'm BG or Winnacunnet the team I'm most worried about facing (besides each other of course) is Dover. Dover is the ONLY team in D1 which has came within single digits of BOTH Winnacunnet and BG. I saw the tape of the game where they played Winnacunnet last Friday night, and they only lost that game by 6. Dover led Winnacunnet 12-6 after 1 quarter and was only down 51-47 with 1:30 left. BG meanwhile had to come back from double digits in order to beat Dover.

NHhoops wrote:Speaking of NHIAA girl's playoff's, Meghan Green is 23 points away from reaching the 1,000 point mark, and she's still a Junior. She could possibly reach it during Wednesday's opening round game, although if you're at the game you won't know it because the NHIAA prohibits the recognition of 1,000 point scorers during playoff games. Green also has roughly 800-900 rebounds in her career. The last time a girl reached 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in NH was probably Stephanie Murphy from Londonderry. Green is positioned to end her career with 1,500 points and something like 1,200 rebounds.

FYI, Rebecca Arnone (a senior) from Campbell scored her 1,000th point earlier in the year and is currently 25 rebounds shy of 1,000 rebounds. Barring a monumental upset Campbell will make the D-III title game which means Arnone will have 3 more games to try and get those 25 rebounds.

Murphy is the only girl in the state's history (at least since records have been kept) that has 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds. Arnone would be the second.

Does anyone know what Stephanie Murphy ended up with for career point and rebounding totals?

The following is from Murphy's Bio on the BC Eagles web site:


All-Time leading scorer in New Hampshire girls basketball with 1,779 points ... Now holds Londonderry records in rebounding (1,249 boards), blocks (289) and points (1,779) ... Broke a New Hampshire record by scoring 519 points in the single season .

http://www.conwaydailysun.com/local-news/story/kennett-high-unveils-its-1000-point-club-10-eagles-honored

A link to article saying Debbie Russell scored 1872 points

Murphy might be the Class L or D 1 leader in the state but she is not that all time state leader scorer

I just checked NHIAA's web site and they still don't have the brackets up for the D1 girl's playoffs.

We are 2 1/2 days away from the tap off to the girl's prelim games. I wonder if they've already decided the top seed and are in the process of putting the bracket up or will the top seed problem be resolved today with the bracket not going on the site until tonight into tomorrow?

It looks like BG won the coin toss - they face #16 Concord Wednesday night. A rematch from the last regular season game on Friday night. Same location. How does a team with only 2 wins make the tourney?

I liked it better when we had the first 4 teams get byes and #5 to #12 played first round games.

Turns out it wasn't a coin toss... Joe M has the scoop here:

http://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/nashua/bishop-guertin-wins-tiebreaker-with-winnacunnet-gets-top-seed-in-d1-girls-basketball

Nice job Joe!

To tell you the truth, given the way Winny and BG mowed through D1 this year, that home/road tie breaker was almost like a coin toss. It worked out for BG. They weren't going to do a 1 game playoff, so it's probably better it came down to the semantics of more points for a road victory than a home victory, instead of the flip of a coin.

"I liked it better when we had the first 4 teams get byes and #5 to #12 played first round games."
Middleschoolball


The coaches were the biggest critics of that old format back in the day. There were a lot of upsets of top 4 seeds when they used to have the top 4 teams receive a bye. # 5 to #12 teams would get the momentum of a big prelim victory while the top 4 teams sat around and waited a few extra days to play their first playoff game. #5 to #12 would be hitting the courts running on all 8 cylinders while #1 to #4 would have a sluggish start kill them in a quarterfinal.

One of the most famous upsets during this format was in the late 80s. Londonderry was undefeated and the unanimously favored #1 team lead by Ron King heading into the then Class L tournament. Central was the 8 seed and came off a victory over #9 in the prelim. The Little Green rode the momentum of their prelim victory to upset the undefeated Lancers in the quarterfinal game. People associated with that Lancer team still talk about the sting of that upset at the hands of the Little Green. A few years later, after a few more top 4 seeds got knocked out and a pattern developing, they went to the 16 team format.

I just heard if Wednesday's storm becomes a factor then the girl's D1 prelim games might be moved to Thursday night.

I'm hearing Concord at BG has been moved to 5pm. Meghan Green projected to score her 1000th point - -though it won't be the best match up of the night by far. Dover at Central will be a good one, as will Alvirne at North...

Central at Dover is at 5:00 tomorrow

All these games are now at 5:00 pm tomorrow:

Timberlane at Memorial

Trinity at Pinkerton

Exeter at Winny


Salem at Londonderry game is at 6:00 pm

I believe the Central at Dover game will be very close. It could go either way. They just played a week ago and Dover won 45 - 43. I know Coach Wenners is looking for mental consistency from his team, especially in the waning moments of games.


The Trinity at Pinkerton game isn't your usual #12 at #5 game. They played back in December and Pinky won by 6. If Trinity can shoot well from the outside they stand a chance of upsetting the 5th ranked Astros.


Amazingly, one of the closer prelim games could be #13 Timby at #4 Memorial. They played at Timberlane back in December and Memorial came away with a close 38 to 33 victory. Timberlane matches up very well with Memorial. Miss Rose and Miss Elezovic are cut from the same basketball cloth. They both have a great skill set, they both are the leaders of their respective teams and they both like to get under the skin of their opponents. Now, they are matched up against each other for 32 minutes. One thing an "under the skin" player dislikes playing against is another "under the skin" player. Let's just say it will be an interesting matchup between these 2 effervescent players, who are also friends off the court. What player wins this battle will probably determine the outcome of the game.

OK here we go. Information coming in as we speak:

Final: Memorial 73 Timby 57. I can't believe Memorial hung 73 on Timby.


Final: Pinky 43 Trinity 19. The score was tied at 14 at the half. If my math is correct this means Trinity only scored 5 points in the 2nd half. Ugh Ugh Ugh.


Central was down 10 at the half to Dover. Central was then down about 9 at the start of the 4th.
With 2 minutes left it was Dover 44 Central 25. Long bus ride home for the Little Green.

Londonderry was up by 16 on Salem.

Nice 4 vs 5 rivalry game Saturday at 7:00 pm at Memorial with the Crusaders playing the Astros.

Winny beat Exeter 76 to 33.

Final: Londonderry 66 Salem 48

Final: Dover 48 Central 35