Today we take a look at the eight first round games in Division III basketball (I’ve repeatedly been on the record about the absurdity of the play-in round games in this division…this is the first round tonight).

(16) Somersworth at (1) Hopkinton

  A very good coach has had a very difficult time getting this Somersworth team to play consistently as they come into their first round match-up with top seeded Hopkinton having lost 12 of their last 14 games. It’s been a struggling offense one game (a 55-21 loss to Campbell) and defensive lapses the next (an 86-63 loss to Raymond) for Lorne Lucas and his veteran coaching staff. A trip to 17-1 Hopkinton will not make their lives any easier.

 Dave Chase’s Hawks earned the top seed behind a deep unit that includes Gabe Nichols (18.4 ppg.), point guard Liam McNicholas (11 ppg.) and underrated forward Luke Luneau (7.4). Somersworth will need big games out of Hunter Kretschmar and Jeremy Jacques down low to hang with the heavily favored Hawks in round one.
 
 (9) Laconia at (8) Mascoma

 Sachems head coach Steve McDonough knows it is all about the angles when you get to the small floor in West Canaan that Mascoma calls home. Jim Barry’s team will pressure you full court, live off your turnovers and use the bleachers as the hidden 6th defender on the floor. Laconia though has a backcourt that matches up well with that style; all-state point guard Aiden Dean (12.9) has been the leader on & off the floor for Laconia all season long and his backcourt mates Matt Swormstedt (8.8) and Cody Greenwood (9.1) both have the speed & ability to navigate out of trouble.

 The Royals need a big effort on the boards from their center Walt Hammond. Mascoma’s transition game starts with Hammond getting the rebound & the ball out quickly. Justin Marsh has had a good season for the Royals and creates a lot of his scoring opportunities with his speed. Laconia needs to take care of the ball and find Jake Sullivan (15.9) with room to operate.

 Going on the road to Mascoma is not going to be easy but Laconia does match up well with the Royals. All of those factors should make for a good one tonight.
 
(13) Raymond at (4) Newport

 Expect a ton of points in this one as the highest scoring duo in Division III goes up against a Raymond team that gives up 62 points per game. Newport’s Andrew Houde (24.4) and Spencer Coronis (20.3) will get their looks as Steve Lavolipicelo’s team tries to get back to the final four for a second straight season.

 Raymond has played very well over the second half of the season and comes into this one winners of seven in a row. To pull the upset they’ll need get second chance opportunities and force Houde to create offense for himself at the top of the key. When Newport is relying on Houde to score from deep they become a mediocre rebounding team. If Coronis & Houde are able to penetrate against the Rams it is going to be a very long night for the visitors but if Raymond can seal up the paint and hold Newport to one shot per possession they can stick around long enough to put a scare & maybe even pull the upset against the four seed.
 
(12) Fall Mountain at (5) Campbell

 Fall Mountain picked up its best win of the season on February 7th when they beat Mascoma 58-41 to enter the top 10 in the standings. Alas the momentum was short lived as they would go on to lose four of their final six games of the season which sends them to Litchfield tonight to face one of the hottest teams in the division in a win or go home tournament game. Campbell has rode the scoring and rebounding of all-state forward Zach Bergeon (20.6 and over 10 rebounds per game) to win 14 of their last 15 games. Harrison Vedrani, Kyle Manning and Kyle Shaw have been able to contribute for a team that lost four starters from last season’s Division III runner-ups who have designs on a return trip to SNHU.

 Fall Mountain has a high scoring duo of their own in Nick Burns (16 ppg) and Ryan Murdock (14.6) and needs to avoid falling behind early in this one. Campbell will mix up its defenses to keep the visitors off balance and the pace to their liking.
 
(11) Prospect Mountain at (6) Gilford

 Tom Bourdeau’s team beat the Golden Eagles in the final week of the regular season on their home floor. That game and a victory over Gilford in the Lakes Region Holiday tournament as well make the 11 seed the favorite tonight against the 6 seed. The other reason for this shift in fortunes is that Gilford will be playing without their point guard & leading scorer Josh Joyce (15.6) who is suspended for two games for an incident in Somersworth that was mishandled literally from the very second it occurred. Joyce has been practicing with his teammates and helping them to prepare for this one but he won’t be on the floor when they tip it off at seven o’clock.

 Chip Veazey’s team will need a big game out of center Kaleb Orton (16 ppg) in Joyce’s absence but if the home team is going to advance they are going to need players like Cam Partridge, Mike Madore, Rich Edson, Coby Goodwin and Nate Davis to step up. Gilford 6th man Kyle Gaudet will also sit out for leaving the Gilford bench during the incident, even though video proves he was in the game at the time…I’m telling you….moving on.

 Logan LaRoche (14.5) and Zach Robertson (13.8) are Prospect Mountain’s two leading scorers and LaRoche is a very good guard and fully capable of making game winning plays when you need it. Bourdeau has done another nice job with this group and it is a team that can hurt you from the outside behind David Troy (9 ppg) and Nate Farnham (8 ppg). Prospect Mountain has struggled all season against teams that pressure the ball (in a loss to Berlin and a pair of losses to 5-13 Somersworth) so a move to get out & pick up defensively may be a decision Gilford makes without Joyce.

 With the season on the line this should be a very good game, if Gilford gets a young nucleus to step up for their captain they can move on to the quarterfinals for a second straight season.
 
 (14) Stevens at (3) Berlin

 Stevens pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the season when they knocked off Conant two weeks ago; can they duplicate that effort and win at Berlin? To do so they are going to need a big night out Nate White (11.9), Jordan Haines (10.9) and talented freshman Parker Smith (5.3). The contributions from leading scorer Ryan Tanguay (15.4) can be counted on at this point and this is a team playing its best basketball of the season under Scott MacNamee, as they come in winners of six in a row.

 Don Picard has done another terrific job with a smaller team than he had anticipated. This is a team that gets after you defensively and has had some opposing guards waving the white flag due to constant pressure.
 
(10) Farmington at (7) Winnisquam

 The story that came out of Tuesday night’s Division IV first round games was, ‘Wait……how good is this Jordan Litts kid from Wilton????’. My guess is if that same theme plays out in Division III it will be the name Christian Serrano that gets repeated over & over again. Serrano was one of the my first team picks at the mid-season mark and if that distinction surprised you I’d recommend a trip to Tilton because the sophomore guard is filing up the stat lien night after night for a Kevin Dane’s underrated seven seed.

 In Farmington he faces a veteran squad led by Kevin Poulin, Shane Gibbs and Kevin Radcliffe. The Tigers threw the bracket into disarray when they were beaten by a three win Belmont team ( a very young group that really improved under their head coach Derek Hamilton) in their season finale. Expect a good one tonight with the winner very likely headed to Conant in round two.
 
 (15) Mascenic Regional at (2) Conant

 You didn’t forget about the defending champs did you? A loss at Campbell followed up later in the season by a shocker at Stevens put the words ‘vulnerable’ and ‘Conant’ in the same sentence. The same Orioles team that beat Lebanon (the 3 seed in Division II) and hung with Manchester Central in the Coaches for a Cause Jamboree (and plenty of teams in Division I have failed to hang with Central..) suffered through some internal issues and some untimely illnesses (Eli Hodgson missed the Stevens game) proved Eric Saucier’s team were actually mere mortals. Tonight Mascenic goes for a third crack at their neighbors on the western part of the state.

 Jared Stauffeneker has been so good of late I didn't need to check the spelling on his name as I typed it out (no lie...) and his 46 points Tuesday night in the games we will not speak of proved once again what a terrific player he has become. Jason Starr’s team knows the Conant personnel, the route to the visitors’ locker room and even the songs they’ll play in pre-game warm-ups. What they need to figure out is how to beat the best team in Division III when it counts. And yes, this is still the best team in Division III today.