Back with the Thursday Thoughts after we wrapped up our four mid-season snapshots where we broke down all the contenders for the title, named our all-state picks as well as player & coach of the year at mid-season.

 Thank you again to the team at Adrenaline Fundraising for partnering with NHsportspage to provide fundraising from everything to cookie dough sales, to discount cards to gifts & prizes for the participants for high school & youth programs throughout New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts.

 In fact if you have a youth baseball, softball or any spring program in need of funds please let me know at davehaley@nhsportspage.com

 

 Very quick registration note: If you register today you have your access for 12 months , meaning on Feb 2nd 2018 your asked if you want to renew. That simple.. Click to choose your membership level

 Thank you to our newest Gold Level Members! 

  Dawn Weeks of Farmington girls basketball

  Bob Briggs of North Carolina

  The Record family of Conant basketball

  Tom Cadieux of Exeter basketball

 

 This weekend is the annual trip up north for the Groveton/Colebrook game on Saturday afternoon at 2:30. Jennifer Chick-Ruth & I will bring you all the highlights and a team wide interview after the game..followed by me being off the grid with the people of Groveton & Colebrook for about 18 hours…

 

 Division I

 Trinity (0-10) at Manchester Central (1-8)

 We broke down the contenders at length so today let’s breakdown a pair of former contenders.

 The defending champs had to replace four starters when Seth Shea (critically underrated point guard), Jonathin Makori (hit the game winner in all four Central playoff wins making him the Derek Lowe of the title run), Evan MacDonald (a cold blooded assassin and one of my favorites..) and Jaylen LeRoy (Player of the Year..also one of my favorites) all graduated.

 David ‘Doc’ Wheeler stepped down as head coach and in came Dave Keefe, back from a self-imposed high school coaching sabbatical after winning a pair of titles at Trinity.

 Central is struggling to score; sophomore Osiah Lewis, the lone returning starter, has been dinged up for most of the season and David Baraka is a player who gives you effort and defense not scoring. Eric Curtijo can get hot from the perimeter but this is a team that has learned they are going to have to win with defense…and 94 feet of it. Keefe recently moved Antione Revere off of the point and over to shooting guard and inserted freshman Yansel Reyes into the role.

 The effort is starting to pay off. Central hung in with Spaulding (53-39) and Bedford (56-52) on the road in their last two games and now enters a key stretch against teams with under .500 records. After Trinity on Friday night they will face Bishop Guertin (3-6) at home before traveling to 1-8 Concord.

 This is a new coaching staff (Keefe, Rich Otis and Kevin Bonney) that really has only had a few months with their team after the late transition from Wheeler and Tommy Dickson in the fall. If Central wants any shot at the playoffs they’ll need to sweep the next three games before they face a very good Exeter team. The effort level is good and few programs play harder than Central does year in and year out, but this is a team lacking a consistent scorer or go to guy.

 Trinity is also young. Jordan Santos (12.8) is a sophomore point guard opposing coaches come away impressed with and Matt Lemieux’s team has gotten good seasons out of Wil Spencer (9.2), Zach Dagan (8.8) and Dante Timbas.

 Lemieux has tried mixing up defenses in an effort to give his team an identity but the real problem has been scoring. The Pioneers have only broken 50 points once all season and failed to crack 40 in a lopsided loss to Alvirne on Tuesday night.

 Games against Central, Dover and then Keene give them some hope for a second half turnaround; it will have to begin Friday night at Lemieux’s alma mater.

 

 Alvirne (6-3) at Bishop Guertin (3-6)

 Will going into the fourth quarter leading undefeated Portsmouth Tuesday night carry any momentum forward for Bishop Guertin?

 Matt Regan’s first season at BG has been a roller coaster ride..usually not from game to game but from quarter to quarter. Clay Crowell (12.2) has shown good range for a big man, Mike Rinko (11.1) shows flashes of the all-state performer people saw in him four years ago as a freshman and guard Pat Donovan can be the best player on the floor for stretches of the game.

 So there is talent there and the ability that comes with it, but BG doesn’t play as hard as the teams we watched at Pelham. Those teams certainly had talent (Ryan Cloutier, Jake Vaiknoras, Keith Brown,,& on & on) but they also looked like they would wrestle the ball away from you if you gave them an opening. BG seems to turn it on & off from quarter to quarter as Regan scrambles to find combinations that work and his best five defenders at a time. Yanis Nyantenji has been a find, a player who can be a beast on the low block and one of the best defenders on the team.

 On Tuesday night they didn’t throw any gimmick looks at Portsmouth they simply worked extremely hard on defense; switched when they needed to and fought through screens when they should have. The result controlled play for most of the night until Portsmouth executed down the stretch and won for the 10th time.

 Portsmouth players left that floor saying to one another, ‘That team has only won three games?’

 No that team hasn’t played for 32 minutes yet, if they do Friday night they can beat a good Alvirne team and get back in the mix in Division I.

 Depends on who shows up Friday night.

 

 Division II

 Milford (9-0) at Hollis-Brookline (8-1)

 We went deep into both of these teams in our mid-season snapshot on Tuesday so we won’t go back over covered ground.

 These two teams play twice in the last nine games of the season. For two teams playing for a pair of home games in the tournament it’s not crucial to get a sweep but it’s pretty crucial not to get swept.

 The point guard match-up between Nick Fothergill (Player Profile Page) and Ryan Banuskevich (Player Profile Page) is going to be worth the price of admission.

 

 Division III

 Conant (8-3) at Campbell (7-3)

 Games like these are fun for a few reasons.

 One it’s a rivalry game and there is a good history between these two teams including two championship game match-ups in 2013 & 2014 (both won by Eric Saucier’s Orioles).

 Two it’s interesting to see which team has improved the most over the past two months. Campbell won the first meeting in Jaffrey (Campbell 63, Conant 56 Box Score) back on December 16th. In that game JP Record Player Profile Page scored 33 points and was a one man crew on offense. It won’t be the same scenario in this second meeting. Peyton Springfield can burn you if you leave him alone on the perimeter and both Drew Marro & Ryan Smith have proven they can step up into a second scorers role when needed. That makes a once one dimensional offense a lot tougher to defend.

 We broke down Campbell at length in last week’s mid-season column (Click here for that column). They will pressure Conant and live & die by three pointers. Harrison Vedrani (Player Profile Page) is a match-up problem and if he gets going to the basket that opens up the perimeter for Campbell’s shooters.

 

 Division IV

 Epping (9-2) at Newmarket (10-2)

 One of the bigger rivalries in Division IV and two teams that will meet twice over the next 10 days.

 Newmarket would seem to have the size to match-up with Epping man to man without allowing first half-player of the year Jackson Rivers (Player Profile Page) to control the game. Newmarket head coach Jamie Hayes can send multiple different defenders at Rivers and keep the pace where he needs it with his all-state guard Anthony Senesombath (23.6). Teams get in trouble against Epping, who likes to apply pressure with their backcourt, when they are sped up to a pace they can’t execute in. Newmarket isn’t going to allow that to happen.

 In the overtime loss to Derryfield Travis Moseley stepped up with 15 points as Senesombath was ‘held’ to 16 points in the loss. If the Mules are going to beat Epping on Friday night they are going to need three players in or near double figures. Head coach Nick Fiset’s team guards the perimeter very well and there are not many on the ball defenders better than his point guard Tommy Bullock.

 Newmarket has a gaudy 10-2 record and I can attest they pass the eye test, but they’ve had an easy schedule to this point. That changes as they close the season with upcoming games at Epping & Pittsfield and a rematch with Derryfield in two weeks.

 

 Colebrook (8-4) at Groveton (11-1)

 Our now annual Saturday afternoon special, and the first time in our four years traveling north that most people feel like they know which way this one will go.

 Colebrook has been led by point guard Jose Alvarado (13.9 ppg.) and forward Garrett Purrington (15.8) who has given the Mohawks a presence in the paint. Jon Sherer (9.8) can hurt you from the outside if you allow him to set up but Buddy Trask’s team lives off of turnovers and Alvarado’s ability to cause them. On Saturday they’ll face a Groveton team that did a nice job against Littleton’s press last Friday night and will be able to attack the rim through the pressure. Something they could not do against Logan Briggs and Littleton in their only loss of the season.

 Colebrook has played better as the season has gone on. They always play hard for Trask & longtime assistant Craig Bedard and the addition of Brandon Crawford takes some of the rebounding pressure off of Purrington. Colebrook has had success in past meetings with Groveton playing man to man defense but they don’t have the defenders, after Alvarado, they have had in the past.

 Even with a loss Saturday Colebrook is still in line for a home playoff game if they finish at 13-5. To do that all they would need to do is beat 4-8 Moultonborough, America’s Team the Lisbon Panthers and Division III White Mountains (1-10).