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| By Dave Haley, Posted 02-22-2012 | ||
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Fewer games to preview this week as regular season play in both Division III & Division IV wind down. Couple of notes; for the fifth straight year we'll be previewing every single tournament game played in all four divisions. Keeping that distinction alive has included once writing a Nute/Hinsdale preview in a booth at a Denny's restaurant in Orlando, Florida (business trip), yes it happened...in other words, you're getting your previews not matter what it takes. Secondly I'm not previewing the play in-games in Division III as I'm totally against play in-games that reward teams that go 4-13 with a Tournament game. I ranted about this last year, I won't do it twice. Get to the top 16 and then we'll go from there. On to the games; Division I Nashua North (12-3) at Manchester Central (10-5) The coverage of Manchester Central is sponsored by 900 Degrees Pizzaria Here come the Titans. Lounge member Ryan Gauthier has been the best player in Division I over the last four weeks and this is a Nashua North team playing with a ton of confidence and all their key players in place. Steve Lane's team got a big game out of Javon Williams (19 points & 10 rebounds) in a 74-68 win over Merrimack Tuesday night and Anthony Farmer has stepped up as their lock-down defender. On the other side this is a game Manchester Central needs if it still has designs on a top 4 seed in the tournament. Remember; a year ago Central went to eight overtimes to beat Salem (ok it was only three but it felt like eight) on their home floor. If that game had been played in Salem it comes out the other way in the Blue Devils favor. That was the difference between the 4 and the 5 seed. It means a lot to get home court. If Central finishes out of the top 4 they're going to look back on the loss to Manchester Memorial last Saturday at Southern New Hampshire with some disappointment. Central moved that game out of their gym to honor the memory of late Central great Sam Carey and it was a wonderful day orchestrated by Central head coach David ‘Doc' Wheeler and made possible by Memorial head coach Mike Fitzpatrick. It was also a big loss in regards to Central's place in the standings as we get into the final two weeks of the season and they now find themselves with some catching up to do. When Central is playing well they are a very mentally tough team, Wheeler's teams are known for that. They have enough size, depth (aided by the return of back-up point guard Dylan Lafond, "I saw him in the hall-way one day and said ‘Want to come back?'" Wheeler told me) and experience to shut good teams down and they need all of that now. There is still a lot of positioning to take place in the final three games and Central has to look at this as their biggest game of the year. Nashua North on the other hand will look at this as another major test. They haven't proven themselves in the tournament yet so these are the games that give you ‘tournament level' games to gauge yourself by. Wins over Bishop Guertin and Merrimack were good first steps as this team continues to mature. A win at Central will leave little doubt they're ready for the post-season. Spaulding (12-4) at Trinity (13-2) The coverage of Trinity is sponsored by Edible Arrangements Two of the best teams in Division I square off Friday night in a possible Final Four preview. Trinity is winning with defense and rebounding as they will come into this game as the top ranked defense in the division, allowing a full six points fewer than the second ranked defensive team (care to guess who has the second ranked defense in Division I?). The Pioneers are getting solid defense out of Patrick Keefe and Ian Sistare out front and have had to survive the loss of their best perimeter defender Hunter Viscarello who was lost for the season with a knee injury. (answer: Londonderry... 3-12 Londonderry). The size and shot blocking of Silvere Aluko, Andrew Lauderdale (who had a ton of blocks against Nashua South) and Mabor Gabriel allows those defenders to be even more aggressive on the perimeter, knowing they have help behind them. This has allowed Dave Keefe's team to funnel everything to the basket and it's an approach that has worked for two straight seasons. Spaulding likes their games to be played in the low 50's and they do that by controlling pace with their defensive pressure, denying every pass on the wing and moving the basketball & running their sets with patience on offense. They get scoring out of lounge member Dominic Paradis (15 ppg), Nick MacGregor (12 ppg), and Conner Noe (10 ppg) while getting defense from PJ Juneau and Luke Roberts. This is a team very comfortable in tight games having won 5 of 6 games this season decided by 5 points or less. Spaulding closes with winless Timberlane so they look like a 13-5 team at worst. A win here sets them up for a pair of home playoff games. Division II Lebanon (10-6) at Pembroke Academy (14-2) The coverage of Lebanon is sponsored by the Woodlands Credit Union A tough closing stretch of games got a whole lot more crucial for Keith Matte's Lebanon team when they lost their senior night game to John Stark on Tuesday. The Raiders had set themselves nicely for a top 8 finish with five straight wins that included handing arch-rival Hanover their first loss of the season but the loss to the Generals, whose own top 8 hopes were on life support, puts them back out on the ledge. That's because Lebanon now has to make two trips back to the Concord area starting with a date Friday night at Pembroke Academy and followed by a March 2nd game at Bishop Brady. Lounge member David Hampton (15 ppg) has been very good both from the perimeter and moving the basketball when the defensive scheme is designed in his honor. Hampton has gotten the ball to point guard Tyler Silver and shown the ability to feed post-players Mark Davidson and Matt Cowles. Davidson has been both consistent & all-state worthy at power forward all season long but its Cowles that is the difference maker for Matte's team. When Cowles is crashing the boards and drawing attention down low Lebanon jumps up a notch as a team. With big man Zander Morrill opting to sit out the season as he prepares to play college football for UNH it's been critical that this team gets production in the paint from Cowles. When they have gotten it they've been good. When they haven't they've been very ordinary and the John Stark game was another example of that. Pembroke Academy has a top 4 seed wrapped up and it is championship or bust for Matt Alosa's team. This was a five deep team a year ago that now can go eight or nine deep with the emergence of Brad Rhodes, Andrew Houde and Dominic Timbas (nephew of the great Billy Timbas) off the bench. Good teams can get caught looking ahead at this time of the season but this is a good rivalry and with Souhegan, Portsmouth and Hanover all winning, Pembroke needs to keep winning all the way to the end of the regular season. John Stark (10-6) at Goffstown (11-5) Two schools whose towns border one another are about to get very familiar with each other over the next seven days. In a rarity in terms of scheduling, these two teams will meet twice in a row to close out the regular season. Both teams want to push the ball and apply pressure for 32 minutes and they are led by their point guards. If that wasn't enough to grab your attention consider that both teams have designs on a home playoff game. Then add in the fact that there is decent chance they could play each other three straight times if they end up finishing as the 8/9 or 7/10 seeds and you've got your requisite subplots. Goffstown has been up & down this season but they are putting up points in Justin Gorham's running system and have been led by Connor Shaw (21 ppg) and point guard Jake Mount (16 ppg). This is a team with eight players averaging over 4 points a game and no deficit looks too big to overcome for this group. If Goffstown gets points out of their second unit (which subs in every four minutes) they are very tough to beat. Shaw and Mount have been outstanding all season long and Shaw in particular has been explosive at times; going for 25 points or more in a game six separate times. John Stark got a very good road win at Lebanon Tuesday night after being blown out by Bedford & Souhegan a week earlier. They go by the beat of their point guard Nicolas Lloyd and have put themselves back in the conversation for home court heading into the final seven days of the season. How they fare against Goffstown determines where they end up when the playoffs open up on March 7th.