We’ve introduced you to all 64 teams that made this year’s high school boys’ basketball tournament and now we’ll dig a little deeper into the teams that made it through round one...
 

Our semifinal previews will again give your insight from coaches who have faced the final four participants using anonymous quotes & critique. For the quarterfinals we’re going with the strategies you’re likely to see from each team as 32 teams fight for a trip to the final four.
 
(8) Kennett at (1) Pembroke Academy

Steve Cote’s team got two huge jumpers from Ryan Vajentic in the final minute of play to come back and beat Hanover 44-40 Wednesday night. That victory sends them tonight’s quarterfinals and a shot at defending champion Pembroke Academy.

Kennett needs to stay in this one early by getting good looks offensively and forcing Pembroke away from all-state shooting guard Patrick Welch. When you’re playing a top seed on their home floor the first quarter is all about establishing a tempo and survival, you simply just want to stay in it early. You can’t win a game like this until the fourth quarter but you can certainly lose it in the first.

This is a veteran Eagles team and one that won’t shy away from the bigger stage. This is a game a program like, this feels like they are building towards. With the win over Hanover they’ve arrived at their moment.

When Pembroke goes zone Kennett will use point guard Brandon Dilucchio to try and navigate through it and he needs to find Vujentic and Nick Graziano for open looks. The Spartans have the personnel to score 90 a night but veteran head coach Matt Alosa has gotten his Spartans to the point where they are comfortable winning at any pace. Cameron Taylor was big in a first round win over Souhegan for the Spartans and if Alosa is getting big contributions from Taylor, Connor Boucher and Max Curran over the next seven days they are going to be very difficult to beat.
 
(5) Bishop Brady at (4) Pelham

Brady stumbled at the end of the season but looked good in a first round win over St. Thomas and now heads to what is sure to be a packed ‘Snake Pit’ at Pelham high school Saturday night.

These are two teams that love to get up & down the floor. Brady has the best pure scorer on the floor in Jourdain Bell (Keith Brown of Pelham is a very close second) but Pelham plays much better defense. Pelham head coach Matt Regan will drill into his players’ heads that they cannot let Bell beat them back up the floor for easy transition baskets and in fact few teams emphasize the need to sprint back on defense more than Pelham.

Jake Vaiknoras likely will get a turn checking Bell and his ability to disrupt the all-state point guard will be a key to Pelham’s success. With all the attention deservedly paid to the older Bell brother teams also need to game plan for younger brother Joe and a very good Bishop Brady frontcourt. The forward combination of Brendan Johnson and Aaron Svendson played well against St. Thomas Wednesday night and has been much underrated this season. For all the talk of a bishop Brady revival this is still a team that has not advanced past the quarterfinal round. A pre-season top 4 pick anywhere you looked; anything but a trip to UNH is a disappointment for Mark Yeaton’s team.

Pelham needs scoring from players like Ryan Frank and Ryan Cloutier to take the pressure off of Brown, who has been a beast of late. When Pelham has five guys shooting in rhythm there are few teams in the division better. Matt Regan’s teams ability to play at their pace and not at a frantic one will be a key in this showdown as the winner here moves on to Durham next week.
 
(6) Hollis-Brookline at (3) Lebanon
 
Intriguing match-up here as Hollis-Brookline comes in with the second best defense in the tournament. Mike Soucy has been able to play a 2-3 zone with 6’3 Dan Bentall at the top of the key and it is a look his players are becoming more comfortable with by the week. This is a team playing their best basketball at the right time of year. The results have been very few open looks and a zone defense that held Coe-Brown to a season low 28 points in round one.

Lebanon had to battle back from a double digit halftime deficit as Tim Riehl and Dylan Haynes of Goffstown rained three’s from all over the floor. Kieth Matte’s team though showed the same resolve they have exhibited all season long and forced two key turnovers in overtime for the win. Saturday night they need to be patient, use Dom Morrill to flash high post to try and find Kalin Sau in the corner for open looks for three. Usually the weakness of any zone is a team’s ability to rebound out of it but Hollis-Brookline does a nice job keeping center 6’5 Shea Whalen in position under the basket to limit teams to one shot. Lebanon doesn’t have a conventional center but they rebound well as a team and players like Nic Shepard and Martin Gradijan rebound very well from the forward spot. This should be another good one as the Red Raiders try for a second straight final four berth.
 
(7) Plymouth Regional at (2) Portsmouth

Jared Kuehl, Kyle Reisert, Gavin Brickley and Collin Sullivan ended the football careers of Patrick Glynn, Donovan Phanor and the rest of the Clippers seniors with a loss on a cold field in Plymouth back in November and now someone is doing it again Saturday night on the floor of Stone gymnasium in Portsmouth.

Plymouth played very well in a first round win over Windham in front of a packed house and now sits, one win short of a trip to UNH for the final four. Portsmouth is thin along the frontline after the dismissal of De’Vonn Wilson-Miles last week and has to hope their forwards Pat and Joey Glynn can not only contend with Reisert and Kuehl down low but stay out of foul trouble as well. Pat Glynn has been as good as any forward in the state defensively and his match-up with Reisert or Kuehl will be one to watch.

Expect Portsmouth head coach Jim Mulvey to have plan B and C ready to go if that need arises but right now the focus of his team has been the perimeter defense by Phanor, Nick Mackey, Zac Hansler and Shon Parham. Offensively the Clippers run Mulvey’s offense and tend to find the hot hand from night to night. Mackey and Phanor have had big offensive games of late and either is comfortable with the ball in their hands and the game on the line.

Plymouth has good size in their backcourt and Sullivan is one of the best pure point guards in the division. Like Kennett they need to stay in this game early, let over the first wave and use their experience and game planning of head coach Mike Sullivan to try and pull one out late.
 
Jennifer Chick and I will in Portsmouth Saturday with our continuing tournament coverage. Check back on Sunday for highlights, play by play as well as post-game interviews with players & coaches.