Division II kicks off tomorrow night and what just two weeks ago looked like a top-heavy division well……….looks a whole lot different today.

 Hollis-Brookline is surging, Hanover has dipped a bit and Pelham, Lebanon, Bow & Con Val all are capable of running the table. All while teams like Manchester West & Milford look like potential giant killers.

 Today we breakdown each of the seven first-round games in Division II.

  On behalf of Jen, Pete, Justin, Lance, Austin, Nichole, Joel, Eliot & I we want to thank each of the 10 coaches who chose to support our team and the coverage of high school sports as Gold Level Members.

 Lorne Lucas of Oyster River

 Nate Camp of Kearsarge

 Frank Moreno of Bow

 Mike Larson of Pelham

 Steve McDonough of Laconia

 Kieth Matte of Lebanon

 Dan Place of Kingswood

 Leo Gershgorin of Con Val

 Peter Pierce of Souhegan

 Cole Etten of Hollis-Brookline

 

 Today’s preview is sponsored by our partners at Concord Orthopaedics! With locations in Concord, Derry, Windham and New London!

 

1. Con Val received a first-round bye

 

 (9) Oyster River at (8) Manchester West

 Oyster River team page

 Box score of the first meeting

 This is an interesting match-up as both teams lack size but can score in bunches.

 As I said on our Division II Bracketology podcast on Friday, West is a scary lower seed, not only for Lorne Lucas’s team but for top seed Con Val who waits in the wings for the winner.

 Kur Teng, the latest member of our NHsportspage underclassman team, has been terrific all season. Opposing coaches rave about him and the Bobcats are going to need to game plan for a way to get the ball out of his hands.

 This Oyster River team hasn’t been able to put together a really good four-game stretch yet. Their longest winning streak of the season was four games and that was followed by losing four of their next five.

 They beat West in their only meeting of the season but you can throw that result out the window. Since that game Justin Gorham’s team has won eight of their last ten games and the two losses came against top seeds Con Val (in five overtimes….yes five) and Hanover.

 If you were doing power rankings for the division the top six teams would match the top six seeds in the this tournament, in some order, but Manchester West would be seven.

 They are going to be a very tough out and Joe Morrell & Oyster River gets the first crack at them tomorrow night.

 

 (13) Laconia at (4) Hollis-Brookline

 Hollis-Brookline team page

 Laconia team page

 Box score of the first meeting

 The Cavaliers are playing as well as any team in the division right now. Their last loss was on January 17th and in the thirteen game winning streak since they own wins over Hanover, Lebanon and a pair over Milford.

 Cole Etten’s team is doing it with defense and their all-state forward Grant Snyder (18.5) has emerged as a legitimate player of the year candidate. Hollis-Brookline has really good size and they are patient on offense.

 Etten has seen this formula work before, including his 2018 title team and after a tremendous closing stretch this is clearly a team that could earn him his 3rd championship as a head coach.

 Steve McDonough’s Sachems have a very good frontcourt. Ryan Chandler (13.6) has good size for a wing player and big man Demarco McKissic (14.1) might be the best player you haven’t heard of.

 The Sachems don’t match up well with teams with speed. Lebanon & Pelham ran them off the court this season, but they match-up really well with bigger teams like Hollis-Brookline and Gilford.

 A win here would qualify as a genuine shocker but McDonough has to like how his team matches-up with the Cavaliers as opposed to Hanover, Lebanon, and Hanover.

 

 (12) Kearsarge Regional at (5) Hanover

 Hanover team page

 Kearsarge team page

 Box score of the first meeting

 Hanover has scuffled a bit at the end of the season but still might be the team with the best combination of outside shooting and size in the post.

 Charlie Adams (16.5) and Nolan Gantrish (15.5) might be the best backcourt in the division, something we knew coming into the season. What we didn’t know that Henry Pikus (13.3) would emerge as a legitimate scoring threat.

 Nate Camp has never been afraid to mix up his defensive looks based on his opponent. Ben Carl (12.4) has played at an all-state level all season but a legitimate #1 scoring threat never emerged. It was thought coming into the season that role might be filled by Adrian McCarthy but he is still working his way back from an injury that kept him out at the beginning of the season.

 What has emerged is a team with very good balance as Chris Stanchfield, Brady Grzanna and Nick LeBlanc have all produced.

 To pull off the major upset they are going to have to try to play at their pace and not allow Hanover open looks from behind the arc.

Tim Winslow’s team has the look of a final four team and you can expect them to be ready for a Cougars team that made a run all the way to the championship game a year ago.

 

 (15) Kingswood at (2) Bow

 Bow team page

 Kingswood team page

 Box score of the first meeting

  You always need to be wary of a team that shoots the ball as well as Kingswood but I do think Bow has the clearest path to UNH.

 With their size (they go 6’4 plus along the frontcourt and their all-state point guard Matt Lamy is 6’3) and ability to defend Frank Moreno’s team is built for the tournament. Bow gets good production from Ben Harris (11.8), Nick Kiah (11.7), Shaun Lover (8.9) and Matt Cardarelli is a certified member of the 2020 all-glue guy team.

 In Kingswood, they face a team that can put up points in a hurry but also gave up 61.5 points per game and if you take the two Plymouth games out, they gave up over 65 points a game.

 Brogan Shannon (19.2) and Ethan Arnold (15.3) have had all-state seasons for Dan Place’s team. The Knights will have to protect the paint and play their best game of the season if they are going to knock the Falcons off.

 

 (10) Souhegan at (7) Kennett

 Souhegan team page

 Can Matt McCool and the Sabers upset the Eagles?

 Would Souhegan beating Kennett actually even qualify as an upset?

 That is to be determined tomorrow night.

 What we do know is Kennett can absolutely shoot the basketball as well as any team in the division when they are on. Wyatt Arriaga & Justin Olson have had all-state seasons for Jack Loynd’s team and remember this is the same team that gave Pembroke a huge scare in last season’s quarterfinals.

 McCool (18.1) has been as good as any player in the division and has seen production all season from teammates Michael Maroun & Curtis Redd.

 These 8/9 and 7/10 games are toss-up games, give Kennett the advantage because Souhegan has to drive up to North Conway but the Sabers played 12 games against tournament teams this season and are very capable of moving on to the quarterfinals.

 

 (14) Sanborn at (3) Pelham

 Pelham team page

 Box score of last week's meeting

 Mike Larson’s Pythons finally look healthy and have to go into the post-season with a lot of confidence after their win over Hanover last week.

 Drew Brown (18.6) has been terrific since returning from a hand injury while Derek Crowley (16.7) has put together another all-state campaign at point guard. Jake Dumont (10.1) gives them a second knockdown shooter on the opposite wing from Brown while Zach Jones, Colby Travis, and Matt Crowley provide rebounding and defense.

 Sanborn doesn’t match-up well with Pelham but they can shoot 3’s very well. They are going to be run off the line and pressured up & down the floor by a Pelham team looking to prove something after a surprising first-round exit a year ago.

 

 (11) Milford at (6) Lebanon

 Lebanon team page

 Box score of the last meeting

 The fact that the Raiders are a 6-seed speaks to the depth of good teams in this division.

 Lebanon made a pretty big statement in beating Hanover 67-42 on the road (ok literally four or five miles down the road) to close out the season and will face a Spartans team they beat two weeks ago.

 Dan Murray’s team matches up with Lebanon pretty well. Gavin Urda and Christian Jones & Jake Greska have all been very good for a Spartans that likes to get out in transition.

 Lebanon is such a tough team to game plan again because Kieth Matte runs such good offense (they rarely seem to take bad shots) and with their size & athletes they can switch on to the ball at all five positions.

 The winner here gets either Pelham or Sanborn in the quarterfinals.