This week we are previewing six games around the state including a huge showdown in the North Country between undefeated teams when Littleton hosts Groveton in front of what will be a packed house on Friday night.

 Jennifer Chick-Ruth, Lance Legere and I will have all the play by play and highlights of both the girls and boys games in Littleton on Friday night.

 Pete Tarrier & Austin Grass will be in Goffstown where the Grizzlies will host Bishop Guertin in a big Division I match-up.

 Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram where we will have updates & a 10-second clip of the kids celebrating their win on camera with us.

 As you heard in today’s podcast with Justin McIsaac, there are more readers than ever on our website but fewer that support the coverage we’re providing.

 We can’t provide the coverage without the New Hampshire Basketball Community being supportive of our team so I hope more families and coaches will join us.

 Thank you to the latest members of the New Hampshire basketball community to support our team: Rob Maccini of Woodsville, Jim Cilley of Belmont Basketball, Jeff Holmes of Exeter Basketball, Larry Hook of Las Vegas but formerly the North Country (as heard on today’s podcast), Kevin Rines of Mascenic Basketball, The Dumont Family of Pelham Basketball and Mark Gillis of Manchester

 Look for the ‘8 questions’ videos (Click for the 1-minute video) to start being featured on the site over the next few weeks for our Players Locker Room members.

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 Today’s column is sponsored by our longtime friends & partners at White Mountains Community College! Sponsoring all of our North Country basketball coverage all season long!

 

 Division I

 Division I Standings, Top 20 Scoring Leaders & Gold Level Coaches/Programs

 Bishop Guertin (2-1) at Goffstown (2-1)

 Bishop Guertin Team Page

 Goffstown Team Page

  This will be a fun one in Goffstown on Friday night that we will be bringing you coverage of.

  Goffstown has been the single biggest surprise in Division I over the last 12 months. This is a program that went 1-17 in 2018 in Division II, was bumped up to Division I simply because of enrollment numbers, and preceded to win 6 games and make the tournament under first-year head coach Ryan Cowette a year ago.

 The Grizzlies are still without their all-state forward Connor Hujsak, who could be returning from an injury this month.

 Point guard Robenson Baguidy might be the most improved player on the team. He’s been very effective at getting to the rim off the dribble and setting up open looks for shooters like Derek Steckowych and freshman Aidan O’Connell.

 Cowette has mixed defenses between match-up zone looks & man to man while adding new players to the rotation. Goffstown moves the ball well and with Hujsak’s injury, more players have been forced to step into bigger roles. Opposing teams don’t have one player to game plan their defense around.

 John Fisher’s Bishop Guertin Cardinals have played very well as a team early on and have already picked up good wins over Bedford, Alvirne, and Concord. This is an athletic team that, like Goffstown, doesn’t have one player at the focal point of their offense but a unit that looks for the best shot.

 Dylan Santosuosso has stepped up into a bigger scoring role for the Cardinals while Mason Carroll gives them a very good shooter on the perimeter. Sam Mullet has improved over the off-season and John Sullivan might be the best athlete on the team. Jordan Robichaud has also been very steady for a BG team looking for their 3rd straight win.

 

 Merrimack (3-2) at Dover (4-1)

 Dover Team Page

 Merrimack Team Page

 The question in this one is whether Dover can rebound well enough to beat Merrimack?

 Dover is the better offensive team, point guard Darian Lopez-Sullivan looks like he is about a year away from being one of the best guards in the state (he’s just a more consistent jumper away) while Kinglsey Breen at times looks like he’s capable of being the best player in the state.

 Those two playmakers are surrounded by shooters like Jackson Rutland, Max Casey and glue guy Ken Healy. Dover relies on Lopez-Sullivan and Breen to create their own offense and dish when the help defense slides over.

 The results tell you it is working for Fennessy’s team. A year ago it felt like at times players stood around watching Division I leading scorer Ty Vitko, where this season there is better symmetry on the floor.

 Merrimack will try to get Patrick Yudkin in match-ups where he can take advantage of his size and use center (and recent UNH football commit) Jared Dyer to protect the rim, hold Dover to one shot and try to keep Breen out of the paint.

 Lopez-Sullivan vs. Adam Ellis will be a fun match-up at point guard. Both of these teams have already played their share of close games. Expect another close one tomorrow night.

 

 Division II

 Division II Standings, Scoring Leaders and Gold Level Coaches/Programs

 Hanover (4-0) at Oyster River (2-3)

 Oyster River Team Page

 Hanover Team Page

  The Bobcats are struggling and a Mike Pittman game-winner sent them home on the wrong end of 61-58 result at Pembroke Academy on Tuesday night.

 Joe Morrell has been battling injuries early in the season and neither Ben Mattioni nor Kyle Miller has emerged as a bona fide #2 scorer yet. The offense has not been as consistent as head coach Lorne Lucas would like but the real problem is a defense that is allowing 66 ppg. against teams not named Stevens.

 That’s going to be a problem against a Hanover team led by Charlie Adams (22.5 ppg.), Jai White (14.8) and Nolan Gantrish (13.8). Tim Winslow’s team is averaging 70.2 points per game and will be favored in every game they play until a February 10th match-up at Lebanon, that we will be covering (both the girls & boys game).

 Oyster River has three games over the next three weeks (thank God we start the season in November and go into mid-March, I’d hate to see our buddy Joe Morrell collapsing after playing four games in twenty-one days) so there is plenty of time to figure this all out.

 Mattioni is a very capable shooter and Miller had a very good summer/pre-season to step into a bigger role, but in a deep division Oyster River could go 4-0 over the next month or 0-4. To turn things around they are going to have to defend at a level we are used to seeing from Lorne Lucas coached teams.

 Playing maybe the best offensive team in the division is just not an easy way to begin that transition.

 

 Division III

 Division III Standings, Scoring Leaders and Gold Level Coaches/Programs

 Gilford (5-0) at Monadnock (3-3)

 Gilford Team Page

 Monadnock Team Page

 The question every Division III coach should be asking themselves is how do you stop an undefeated runaway train and is it even fair they are still in the division?

 Two very fair questions.

 Oh, come on you knew it was coming…

 This is a very tough road game for my alma mater and amazingly....their first road game of any kind (holiday tournament included) this season.

 I both respect and admire Gilford athletic director/first-year head coach Rick Acquilano for adopting the Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim ‘We’re not playing a game outside of New York until January’ scheduling model.

 Gilford’s Adrian Siravo and Monadnock’s Jake Kidney are both vying for the player of the year honors in the division (with Kevin Newton-Delgado of Hopkinton, Anthony Gauthier of Conant and Sammy Stauffeneker of Mascenic right there with them) and each will be hard to contain tomorrow night.

 Siravo at 6’4 and built like an NFL tight end has become a force, and he has done so with more consistent production and effort. Acquilano has him defending the rim and is either sending shots away on a regular basis or encouraging teams to start settling for jumpers.

 This was a big physical Monadnock team a year ago but with the graduation of Tim Santaw, this has become more of a team built around speed and their all-state playmaker. Kidney is a good shooter but he is elite at getting where he needs to off the dribble and finishing in the lane through contact. This puts him on a collision course with Siravo in Swanzey Friday night.

 The Golden Eagles play Jim Hill’s team tomorrow night, Somersworth at home on Tuesday (in a game we will be covering), at St. Thomas and against Campbell in the next two weeks, so we will know exactly where they stand in the race after that stretch.

 

 Winnisquam (4-1) at Somersworth (4-2)

 Winnisquam Team Page

 Somersworth Team Page

 There are good athletes all over the place in this one and this a good opportunity for Kevin Dame’s Bears to pick up a second signature win this season after they beat Campbell 64-39 in December.

 Phil Nichols is right where we expected him to be after we tabbed him as an all-state pick in the pre-season and the Bears have been able to play without point guard Garrett Mango who has been out with an injury that lingered from football season.

 Sophomore Anthony Robbins has stepped in and played well at the point while Caleb Bushway and Jacob Seavey both have shown flashes early on. Dame knows what he is getting from Nichols every night and when he is on Gunnar Horman is one of the best shooters in the division.

 This is a team capable of a run to the Final Four (I almost wrote SNHU but do we even know where the final four is being played this year?) and the possible return of Mango and the emergence of Robbins could be keys to getting them there.

 Somersworth has begun to play better as Rob Fauci coached teams tend to do as we get deeper into the season. Having Travis Wright back at point guard has given the Hilltoppers a lift and both Jacob Hamilton & Luke Monesmith have played well since the holiday break.

 Both teams can score and the guess here is Somersworth tries to slow the pace with their half-court trap. The player to watch is Somersworth center Ethan Johnson, who could have a big night against a smaller Winnisquam frontcourt.

 

 Division IV

 Division IV Standings, Scoring Leaders and Gold Level Coaches/Programs

 Groveton (7-0) at Littleton (6-0)

 Groveton Team Page

 Littleton Team Page

  As far as the regular season goes, Groveton vs. Littleton (a game I’ve covered eight times over the years) facing each other as undefeated teams on a Friday night is about as good as it gets.

 Littleton showed last week that they are the team to beat in Division IV after leading Newmarket wire to wire at NHTI. Parker Briggs looked like a player who had been on the big stage before and scored 23 points in the 60-49 win.

 Josh Finkle gave the Newmarket frontcourt trouble all night by pushing them off their spot and forcing them to clear the lane defensively for Briggs, Landon Bromley, Parker Paradice, and Todd Krol-Corliss by knocking down 15 footers from the baseline.

 Trevor Howard only played 6 players against Jamie Hayes’ team and I don’t expect him to go more than 8 players deep against Groveton. Finkle will have to match-up against Chris Corliss and Brandon Laundry down low, trying to limit second-chance opportunities for the Eagles.

 This is a Groveton team that has evolved over the first month and a half of the season and one where everyone’s roles seem to be clearly defined.

 Where in the pre-season we knew what we were getting from Josh Wheelock (19 ppg.) and thought we knew what we were getting from Julian Kenison (13.3 ppg. and a second-team all-state pick here in the pre-season), we didn’t see Matt St. Cyr and his 17.2 ppg. coming.

 Groveton Hall of Fame head coach Mark Collins talked about St. Cyr in the pre-season like he was trying to will him into stepping up into a bigger role.

 Well, it’s happened; Groveton wouldn’t have wins over Colebrook (23 points) or Farmington (17 in an overtime win) without St. Cyr.

 When you have three players averaging nearly 50 points a game, two rebounders to man the low post & create second-chance opportunities, a shooter off the bench in Kaden Cloutier…and don’t forget the head coach and his seven Division IV championships……that’s a team built for a final four run.

 Depth is a luxury neither teams have, so it shouldn’t be an issue tomorrow night unless foul trouble comes into play.

 Littleton killed Newmarket by driving to the middle and kicking out to Briggs, Krol-Corliss, and Bromley in the corners. Defensively Groveton doesn’t need to turn Littleton over as much as they need to get those three players taking shots a step inside the 3-point line and not a foot outside of it by running them off the line with close-outs.

 Josh Wheelock has come up big this season after a disappointing performance against Portsmouth Christian in a first-round loss a year ago. Expect him to play well and for Kenison, it might be his official big game coming out party.

 St. Cyr will draw the attention of Trevor Howard’s defense a year after they felt comfortable leaving him alone on the perimeter.

 All of which makes for a terrific game on Friday night with only one team walking out as the lone undefeated team in the division.

 I mean where else in the state would you rather be?