Class M Boys Tournament

Into the quarterfinals as of today in class M. Some interesting games so far....

Higher seeds have prevailed so far, except for #14 White Mountains who took care of #3 Winnesquam last night. A pretty substantial upset if you just look at the standings, but props to my colleague Dave Haley for calling that one in not so many words over at NHSPortsPage.com.

Conant vs. Belmont: Conant should take care of business at home.

Mascoma Valley vs. Campbell: Should be a great game. Love Campbells style of up and down play. High pressure, high intensity, I like them to win and give Conant a game in the Semis.

The other teams I haven't seen so can't say too much about them, but have heard good things about Somersworth (playing the cinderella White Mountains) and Berlin (assuming they won) vs. Stevens.

Mascoma beat Campbell, a bit of a shocker I thought: http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/sports/highschoolsports/651742-221/basketball.html

Also, White Mountains beat Somersworth to continue their darling run through the Tourney. On to the semis!

Semifinals are set for this Saturday at SNHU.

Conant vs. Mascoma Valley Regional: I really thought that Campbell would beat MVR but the boys form Mascoma did what Campbells hates, play the same game Campbell likes to. It's been documented Campbell struggles against teams that like to run n gun and play uptempo. Can MVR keep the run gonig vs. the might Conant? Should be interesting.

Berlin vs. White Mountains Regional: I honestly don't know a lot about these two teams, but will after Saturday as I'll be covering the action in both games for NHSportsPage.com. WMR is absolutely the cinderella of Class M coming in as the 14 seed and looking to uphend #2 Berlin. The good news for WMR is that Conant is on the other half of the their bracket. Bad news is they've gotten this far and now have to face a hard-working down n dirty Berlin team that doesn't let up.

Look for the write ups Sunday Morning. Would love to hear from the masses on any of these 4 teams if you've been out to see any of them...

Interesting both the Conant boys and girls will meet the Mascoma boys and girls respectively Saturday for a trip to the finals. Both schools fans should be out in force.

Lots of talk about the Conant boys team this year and if they could play in Class I and L. I'll be covering the action and can't wait to see what they've got in store for Mascoma. I think there is going to be some really good basketball being played and encourage everybody to get out Saturday day/night for a great day of hoop at SNHU.

Follow live updates tonight at www.twitter.com/nhsportsforum - heading to SNHU momentarily to catch some Class M girls hoop as well!!

Conant and Campbell won the girls games earlier today.

Berlin beats White Mountain HANDILY 49-23 - Arsenault and Michalik were the catalyasts scoring 18 and 15 respectively.

Conant 60 Mascoma Valley 57 - There was a 3 at the buzzer by Mascoma. Conant led by as much as 11, but Mascoma wouldn't give up. Should be a good final.

Pretty good night of hoop at SNHU even though the first game was a blowout. I like Conant in the final but DON'T SLEEP on Curtis Arsenault and Berlin. They can play and this will be the first meeting of the two teams this season. Can't wait! Look for my articles on NHSportsPage.com tomorrow morning for both games.

Conant 60 Mascoma Valley 57

Mascoma 13 12 11 21
Conant 21 10 14 15

Conant had a fast start with their usual uptempo style offense and their turnover producing press in the first period. The 1 - 2 combo of Sean Martin and Jimmy Peard each had 7 in the opening stanza to lead the Orioles to a 21 - 13 lead at the end of the first. Devin Coleman had 4 to lead Mascoma. Mascoma cut the deficit a few times in the 2nd as junior Conner Torrey made his presence felt in the paint with a couple of finishes. Conant starting turning the ball over which lead to some Mascoma baskets. With 5:55 to go in the 2nd Sean Martin picked up his 3rd foul. This helped Mascoma stay close for the rest of the first half. With 35 seconds left in the first half an interesting move was made by Conant to put Martin back in the game with Conant on offense. Martin drove to the basket and looked like he was on "Weird Street" when he made his move. He didn't know what to do and was called for a travel. He was immediately substituted for with 24 seconds left in the half. Lucky for the Orioles Martin did not pick up his 4th foul or it would have made for interesting half time conversation in press row.

Conant expanded their lead in the 3rd even though Torrey had a nice quarter with 7 points. Every time Mascoma would get close they were pushed back by a Peard, Martin or Hodgson basket. Hodgson forced his offense on Mascoma and it paid off with 2 medium range jumpers and a nice drive finish. Conant maintained a 7 to 10 point lead for the first 3 minutes of the 4th quarter. Mysteriously, Mascoma burned a TO while on a nice little run, which seemed to give Conant a regrouping second breath. Conner Torrey and Sean Martin exchanged baskets over the next couple of minutes. Mascoma used their last TO with 2:14 left in the game and Conant at the FT line. At this point they had no TOs left. Martin made some key FTs down the stretch, but Dickson and Coleman made buckets to keep Mascoma close. Mascoma couldn't call TOs on their last few possessions as they had already burned them.

Conner Torrey finished with 20 points and was a work horse all game long for the Royals. Senior Devin Coleman had 14. Sean Martin lead the Orioles with 20 points. Jimmy Peard had 17 points including a few nice moves down low. Ezra Hodgson had 10. The Conant contingent was loud and strong tonight at SNHU. There was a sea of orange that enveloped the east side stands at SNHU. Mascoma had a strong and loud following also. There was an excellent atmosphere for this game. It was nice to experience some good Class M basketball.

Somehow ChiKid made it on press row...what was that all about? haha...

Yeah, what is that all about Assistant? If ChiKid is going to be on press row then what's to stop him from gaining access to the referee locker room?

I know he's had amicable??? disagreements with both sectors of the basketball world.

Press Row? Hardly them were nosebleed seats that no one else wanted. All the so called real press people were on the scorers table where the action is. Didn't you see the sign? Scorers table had a sign that said TV and Print Media at Scorers table, know it all bloggers and AM radio guys way up there...

haha...Don't lie it was the best seat in the house and you loved it!

So after checking out some Class M hoops last night - the question should be posed - Can either Conant or Berlin play with some of the top tier Class I or L teams in the state?

I think the mix of players that Conant currently has could compete with anyone in Class I, but Berlin would struggle...they lack quickness, size and a true ball-handler...they are very tough and play a suffocating m2m defense, but would have difficulty scoring

OK, It was pretty neat being up their with the great minds of college hoop of New Hampshire. And spending time with an official without his striped jersey was a good day. I doubt I will get that lucky at UNH for the class I finals but I really hope I am their filming for our team.
Tuesdays final pairings are still not up for class I so some teams or coaches may still be waiting for the match ups to be confirmed. This is again the biggest issue for the Heal. I think the coaches should know within 24 hours of the last contest. Milford gets MV again in Milford. It was a mismatch the first time and it was also the game where water was spilled in front of the bench of MV. That water almost ended the season for Scott McCallum but tomorrow he gets his cast off and will get to practice before Tuesday nights game. We will see if coach Murray decides to use him or save him for... well we dont know who but I guess it is supposedly Stark or Hanover. If that is the matchup I see Hanover winning that game. That would set up Hanover for the bus ride south to Milford for the 2nd round. Milford and Hanover did not play in the regular season but Hanover has a win over Lebanon so that could be a much tougher game. Should be fun but it sure would be nice to have a bracket to analyze soon. Come on NHIAA post the bracket!

After the game last night I was approaching the ramp to get onto 93 south when a white 12 passenger fan bus that started to get onto 93 north decided they should go south, thus running me almost into the car in the left lane. I was almost crushed by a 12 passenger van that was still on 101 in Milford when I got off the highway. So I have to assume that it was a Conant fan bus, what a story that would have been. Maybe not as good as being pulled over on live radio but how often do you get crushed by a van that says FEAR THE BEARD on the back.

How did the Class M tournament thread get on the topic of Milford? Lets hear your assessment of the championship teams ChiKid! Sorry to hear about the fan bus, but that kind of erratic driving is a pretty common occurrence this close to the MA border.

I did not see Berlin play. Conant could compete in Class I. whether they would be a top 6 to 8 team remains questionable. If Conant was in L they would probably be a team that would finish 13th to 16th. Martin and Peard would be solid L or I players. Kemph Kim would have a tough time against stronger and more skilled guards in L. Hodgson is a serviceable 6'5 player that could compete very well in I or L. I didn't see much depth from Conant's bench which would spell a lot of trouble for the weekly grind of a Class I and especially a Class L schedule. 11 of Conant's 18 wins were by 20 or more points. Another 3 victories were by 18 or 19 points. That's 14 out of 18 games that were blow out victories for the Orioles. These weekly blow outs would not happen in I or L. Conant would be in a fight for a victory every time they stepped on the court in L and most of the time in I. The grind of an L schedule would wear them out. Seeing they are not deep, this grind would take a toll on the team in the last 1/3 of their schedule.

Is Conant a good team? Yes, they are an excellent Class M team. They would be a good Class I team that would finish 6th to 10th. They would be a below average Class L team that would visit a 2nd to 4th seed in a Class L prelim game once it's all said and done.

I like the Conant team alot. I do, however, think that they would struggle against the upper echelon teams of both leagues simply because they lack Class L and I type size(meaning they dont have multiple quality players over 6-2 like most "bigger" schools have) and are just not that deep. The top 2 players, seniors Peard and Martin would no doubt excel even in Class L, and the diminutive senior point guard Kemph Kim(1st name pronounced "Kime" according to his coach Eric Saucier who joined us on the radio on Saturday-listen to it on fnlnh.com) is lightning fast and a tremendous ball handler. The slender junior big guy, 6-5 Ezra Hodgson can shoot it, but it didn't look like he really wanted to get down and dirty on the low block to take advantage of his height. In just 1 game, Jimmy Peard became one of my favorite players with his crazy heavy metal band member beard and tattoos. A bunch of the Conant fans were sporting fake beards in honor of the 6-1 senior and there was also a very cool sign posted on the wall at SNHU that read "fear the beard"! As for the reigning Class M Player of the Year Martin, he kind of reminds me of a slightly shorter, but quicker version of Salem's Steve Savage who was Mr. Basketball a couple of years ago. He's a 6 foot tall silky smooth wing player who can get to the hole in a blink of an eye. Another highlight of the night at the Class M semis was looking over the record book from the Tournament program(which have really improved over the years). It's always fun looking back at what teams won the thing dating back to 1930. Alot of the schools that won championships are no longer around(Appleton?, St. John?, St. Mary?). Heck, Pinkerton won the Class M title back in 1947! Biggest name in the Class M record book? Carlton Fisk of Charlestown High School(1965) is tied for the most field goals by 1 player in 1 Tournament game with 19. Not quite as famous, Woodsville's Stephen Elliott also had 19 FG's in one game(in 1964). Pretty cool!

While I'm talking a little Class M, I also wanted to mention how great the people at SNHU are at putting on a tournament, especially when compared to how they do it at UNH for Class L and I. I used to do radio play-by-play for some of those great Stan Spirou teams(then New Hampshire College) of the mid 90's. It's been a while since I've entered The Fieldhouse on the Manchester campus, but it really is a nice place and a 1st class facility here in NH. The big difference between the games at SNHU and the ones at Lundholm is how they handle getting statistical info to the media. Bottom line is, at SNHU they do a fantastic job! Last night for example, I had my 1st quarter stats just seconds into the 2nd quarter, and it stayed the same way throughout the game. That makes it ALOT easier for a radio play-by-play guy to do his job. Not that anyone was even broadcasting the Conant/Mascoma game last night. But the point is they still had it available. They even had a fully detailed play-by-play rundown at the end of the game, just minutes after the final buzzer.

At UNH? Quarterly reports? Maybe you can find one in a boardroom somewhere in Durham, but I haven't seen one on press row during a game. And good luck getting the halftime stats before the 3rd quarter starts...and they have a whole 12 minutes to get the stat sheets done at the break. And when you finally do get them, it's not a comprehensive, nicely done, easy-to-read, full of info computer print out like at SNHU, it's a hand written, chicken scratch copy that usually doesn't even have the correct stats. Seriously, I remember getting one final stat sheet a couple years ago after a Class L tourney game at UNH that showed one team had a TOTAL of 7 rebounds...in the game. SEVEN, in the entire game. My immediate reaction was, "I think the 'stat guy' missed a few boards". I hate to sound mean, but I blame this on the average age of many of the people who are involved with keeping the stats and getting them to the media in a "timely" manner. Just by looking at them, I think the crew might be the same people who worked the tourney when Fisk was hitting all those buckets.

So my question is, why can a Divsion 2 school provide D1 type game services for the NHIAA Tournaments and the State U can't even come close? Do they not have the same kind of equipment at UNH that SNHU does? They must. They are in the America East Conference for goodness sake. I've been on press row for BU games and everyone gets their own computer monitor with constantly updated stats. Is this a budgetary issue for the NHIAA at UNH? Would it cost more to include these game services at Lundholm? I've brought this up to the NHIAA people and suggested that maybe they should kindly thank some of the old timers for their many years of work on these games and get some people in who can get the job done quickly and correctly in today's world of "I want it right now"! I'm sure I've just offended a few "old timers". I'm sorry about that, but there's a big difference between fondly remembering the old days and being able to keep up with a fast moving game and even faster moving technology.

Heh ChiKid, are you sure that "fan bus" you are talking about wasn't the 6 referees who worked last night's M games? You do seem to have a rep amongst a lot of officials in this state. Maybe the bus said:

"Fear the Fox 40"

Pete, that is very perceptive to note Carlton Fisk still holds a M tournament record for FGs. He used to come to Trinity in the 70s when he was with the Red Sox to play pick up basketball in the off season to keep in shape. He wore a head band that made him look ominous on the court. I can see why he's still tied for most FGs in one M tournament game with 19. He was a tough dude behind the plate and on the court.

You talk about high schools that aren't around any more like Appleton and Pinkerton being a Class M powerhouse in 1947 to 1958 and winning 5 M titles during those years...... wait until you see the Class L program. St. Joseph High School, which is now St. Joe's Jr High in Manchester, won a L title in 1932 and was runner up in 1931. Any one who's ever seen that "Lions vs the Christians" court would have a tough time imagining a HS basketball game being played there. When you referee there now you have to tell the pressing team to back off the inbounding team by a few feet because there is absolutely no room in that gym.

On the girl's side, Class L basketball for girls didn't start until 1978, when Central defeated Dover for the very first Class L girl's state champion. In the preceding 8 years girl's basketball was known as Class AA where Fall Mountain dominated by going to the first 5 state title games and winning 4 out of the 5 championships. It looks like the Winny girls have come a long way from the AA girl's division of the 70s in NH.

Berlin is leading Conant at the half 15-12. Low scoring affair sofar.

Conant up 28-24 after 3 quarters after an 11-0 run in the 3rd.

Conant wins the State Title 41-35. Congrats to both boys and girls teams from Conant for winning their respective basketball championships!

How good is Conat coach?, how many titles in a row is this?

ANd think they did this with one of their best players dying in a car accident his Junior in the middle of season, not sure if it was last year or the year before.

really a good story there.

ALso what towns make up Conat?

Tragic accident, happened last year.

Jaffrey and the surrounding towns go to Conant I believe.