Jan. 3rd Games

All the holiday fanfare is done. It's time to get back to the regular season road. The road is very scenic to start the 2012 trip with the following matchups:

Memorial at Salem: 2 teams searching for an identity in 2012. Both teams have that, "Not as good as anticipated" feel to them. They both have issues with scoring. Salem scored 37 and 35 in their 2 regular season games so far. Memorial had trouble putting points on the board in the QCIBT. If both teams score past the high 40s or low 50s I will be surprised.

South at BG: Very big game for South to make a statement they are in the upper echelon for 2012. BG is coming off their tough Mass holiday tournament while South won the Nashua holiday tournament. This game might answer some questions for the top 5 for 2012. South must have an answer for the hot shooting Joe McCarthy.

Alvrine at West: Alvrine did not have an impressive holiday basketball foray while West was the #1 biggest story in D1 holiday tournament basketball. I know West has Jeremy's head spinning like Linda Blair in the movie The Exorcist. Before I buy into West fully for 2012 I will wait for Jeremy Blair's head to stop spinning. If West is going to want to be considered a member of the Big Boy Club then beating Alvrine will be a good start to filling out their membership registration. Alvrine wasn't impressive at the Nashua Holiday Tournament, but what else is new in Bronco-Ville as they treat the first 5 to 7 games of the season as a mad doctor's table of concotions trying to mix all kinds of things together to get it right. This is a very interesting matchup.

Merrimack at Trinity: We have been here before for Merrimack. Questions going into the QCIBT....Check. Impressive showing in the QCIBT ...... Check. The following year/season of basketball not exactly the way Merrimack would have liked it to turn out.......Can't put a check here fans. This is why they play the games. Trinity really has not been overly impressive in their first 2 regular season games and their showing at the QCIBT. Even though Trinity lost to the #1 storied team of the holiday season in West, it was their near comatose state of team basketball that was worrisome. Mabor Gabriel has been an enigma so far this season. Yea, he has averaged in the high teens, but it has been the ugliest high teen average you'd want to see. You get the feeling there's so much more waiting to come out for the highly touted junior. Merrimack's big 3 of Floras and Gendron Bros will have to score a bunch to win this game. Jeff Giannelli will be a big key. He must negate Andrew Lauderdale's points and rebounds. If he gets into foul trouble this will open up a lot of holes in Merrimack's paint for extra chances on the offensive boards for the Pioneers.

Salem 39 Memorial 36. Points are at a premium in this contest.

BG 75 South 65. Points aren't at a premium in this contest. BG remembers all to well that South dealt them one of their few losses last season.

Alvirne 65 West 58. Jeremy's head can stop spinning.

Trinity 66 Merrimack 60. I imagine Coach Keefe was not to happy with the Pioneers performance in the QCIBT. Trinity is tough, especially at home.

Interesting first scores to come into the NHIAA :

Pembroke 70 John Stark 69 - sounds like a tough one for John stark - almost knocking off Pembroke.

Portsmouth 54 CoeBrown 53 - another tough loss like the the John Stark one - a chance for Coe Brown to knock off one of the top teams - A big rivarly game

Interlakes 54 Newfound 45 - another big rivarly game played in Meredith this time - Newfound has beat Mascoma to give Mascoma their first in house loss in years, but couldn't get by Interlakes. Newfound has been up and down so far this season.

Newmarket 79 - Nute 30 - Ouch!!!

Finals:

Trinity 64 Merrimack 60

Salem 59 Memorial 46

Londonderry beat Spaulding by 2. So, what's up with the Red Raiders?

South won by 3 tonight - low scoring game - somewhere in the 40's. I only got to see 1/2 the game, but it sure was "interesting" and "entertaining"...

Tuesday and Friday wrote:Londonderry beat Spaulding by 2. So, what's up with the Red Raiders?

I watched the Spaulding-Portsmouth championship game at the Oyster River Holiday tournament, where Portsmouth won 60-49. I'm not a big follower of D-1 hoops, but I just don't think Spaulding has the size to match up against the bigger D-1 teams. Although undersized, they did a lot of nice cutting and moving without the ball, but if they are not hitting a decent percentage of their threes, they could struggle. I don't know anything about Londonderry, so I don't know if that was the case tonight. I don't recall which "forumite" had Spaulding as your darkhorse #4 seed, but you might want to rethink that one. I do agree that Coach Cronin does a really nice job up there in Rochester.

Agreed - Cronin is a class act.

It looks like South got BG to play their game tonight. Slow it down and play close to the vest. I heard it was an ugly game and if you were a South fan going into this game you would want an ugly game. so, it looks like South had a:

Beautiful ugly win.

I saw Memorial at Salem tonight. Memorial had a little WOW, but a lot of WHY.

I heard that at halftime it was Londonderry girls 47 Spaulding 2. Now that deserves a ginormous WOW.

How about Woodsville girls beating Lin-Wood 66 - 4. Heh GNG, do you know where Lin-Wood high school is located in NH?

Central only beat Exeter by 6. After hearing some "things" about Central basketball this evening I'm starting to think Central is...


......... .......Not what we thought they were going to be.

I think Central West Friday will be quite the interesting game.


I'm still keeping my Memorial shares and not looking for South shares. If push came to shove, I'd buy Merrimack over Trinity at this point (but could change that one)

How's your portfolio, GNG?

What kind of stock is Spaulding basketball right now?

West at Central will be very interesting indeed. It could be a turning point for Central.

3 days and GNG's New Year's Resolution has already failed.

I'm sure it isn't the first time it's happened to GNG.

Alvirne 60, Manchester West 48

Sean Dunn hit three 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 22 points to lead the Broncos (2-1) to a win over the Blue Knights (1-2).

Tony Beaulieu added 15 points for the winners while Jim Tomaswick and Tyler Livingston also scored in double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively.


The above is from the Telegraph. So, with West and Merrimack losing tonight is it too early to talk about the curse of playing well in the QCIBT?

MANCHESTER WEST (48)

JoCarl Bareau 8-0-18, Aaron Martin 4-1-10, Travis Descoteaux 3-3-9, Carl Jacques 2-1-6, Nolan Flynn 1-0-3, Breno Pena 1-0-2. Totals: 19-5-48.

ALVIRNE (60)

Sean Dunn 7-5-22, Tony Beaulieu 7-0-15, Jim Tomaswick 6-0-12, Tyler Livingston 4-2-11. Totals: 24-7-60.

Manchester West (1-2) 9 14 13 12 – 48

Alvirne (2-1) 13 15 20 12 – 60

3-pointers: MW-Bareau 2, Martin, Flynn, Jacques. A-Dunn 3, Beaulieu, Livingston. Next game: Alvirne at Bishop Guertin, Friday, 7 p.m.



NASHUA SOUTH (49)

Yordy Tavarez 4-5-13, Anthony Muccioli 1-8-10, Michael Dunham 4-0-8, Kevin Morrissey 1-3-5, Jack Preston 1-2-4, David Dunham 2-0-4, Armond McRae 1-1-3, Tim Preston 1-0-2. Totals: 15-19-49.

BISHOP GUERTIN (46)

Joe McCarthy 4-4-14, Jeff Lunn 3-2-8, Logan Kesty 2-3-8, Cooper Paul 2-2-6, Brad Holler 2-0-4, Nate Chartrand 2-0-4, Steve Toscano 1-0-2. Totals: 16-11-46.

Nashua South (3-0) 6 9 20 14 – 49

Bishop Guertin (2-1) 9 13 9 15 – 46

3-pointers: BG – McCarthy 2, Kesty. JV: BG wins.


TRINITY (64)

Sistare 5-3-14, Lauderdale 5-0-10, Keefe 4-0-10, Gabried 4-1-9, Gianpatruzzi 3-2-9, Viscareilo 2-1-6, Aluko 3-0-6. Totals: 26-7-64.

MERRIMACK (60)

Dimitri Floras 7-3-21, Eric Gendron 6-1-14, Jared Peabody 5-3-13, Tyler Gendron 3-3-9, Connor Whalen 1-0-2. Totals: 22-10-60.

Merrimack (2-1) 15 14 8 23 – 60

Trinity (3-0) 9 22 14 19 – 64

3-pointers: T - Keefe 2, Viscareilo, Sistare, Gianpatruzzi, M - Floras 4, E. Gendron. Prelim: Merrimack JVs. Next game: Friday vs. Exeter, 7 p.m.

I predicted the Trinity score within a basket.

I was right with Alvirne, while everyone else was busy jumping on that West bandwagon.

Salem, Yup said they would beat Memorial..

The only one I got was wrong was the one I wanted to get right. South beating BG at Lund Rd.


T@F was right though. Lasting 3 days on my New Years resolution might be a personal record for me.


I will predict this now. No team will run the table in division one. Two are left standing right now.

GNG, my mother taught me not to bombastically promote myself and to be humble in a classy way.



Your mother taught you differently, correct?

I think the quotes from the Telegraph sum up the game perfectly:

Jim Migneault said. “I wasn’t real happy with our ball movement.

“I thought we played a little selfish tonight.’’


That's certainly a lot of what I saw. When forced to play a half court game, the boys needed to be a bit more patient with the offense and certainly make crisper passes. They couldn't get South running around enough. A few ill advised passes as well down to the feet on a drive rather than a dish to the belly for an easy lay-in. South seemed to move and pass the ball much better at least in the 2nd half. It's just one game, but the next two are important (Alvirne and West - on the road). Neither gym is an "easy" place to play and both teams are playing better than expected.

When it's all said and done the following term might be my favorite term to describe something in a basketball game:



ill advised

SELFISH is a word that has destroyed many a teams dreams.

I am quite sure that Coach Migs will adress that at practice tonight.

Unfortunately I was unable to attend the game last night. My middle son Reid Thomas Fenway Remillard celebrated his 21st birthday in grand fashion. T@F, You would love this kid, total opposite of me, very humble.

Pinkerton over Concord. 63 - 36. A guard from Concord came out and hit 4 or 5 shots in a row to give Concord the early lead and then Pinkerton took over the game.