We are back with the Thursday Thoughts and a big announcement.

 Our New Hampshire Sportspage team has partnered with the team at AutoFair.

 With eight locations, including Manchester, Nashua, and on the seacoast in Stratham, AutoFair is the gold standard of auto dealerships in the granite state and a huge supporter of the coverage of high school sports across the state.

 AutoFair makes it happen, and we are going to announce some great benefits for the AutoFair families in our audience.

 As we do every Thursday, we rank the contenders in all four divisions as we near the mid-way point of the season in divisions III and IV.

 We’ll have coverage of two games tomorrow night;

 Pete Tarrier and Josh Labrecque will be at the David Smith Dome in Northwood as the Coe Brown Bears take on the Lebanon Raiders.

 I will be at the house Mike Lee built in Farmington as the Tigers take on undefeated Littleton.

 We’ll have all the highlights and the post-game interview/celebration with the winning team.

 Division I

 Division I Standings. Scoring Leaders and Gold Level coaches

 Gold Level Supporters/Coaches: Jaryd Piecuch of Londonderry, Matt Fennessy of Dover, Ryan Cowette of Goffstown, Mike Dunham of Pinkerton, Rob McLaughlin of Salem, Jeff Holmes of Exeter, Jeff Baumann of Timberlane, and Leo Gershgorin of Alvirne.

1. Bedford- Frank Moreno’s team got a great test from the only team that beat them last season, beating Nashua North 81-76 last Friday night behind 32 points from Luke Soden and 22 from Austin Kasyjanski. 

2. Pinkerton- I would say you can't leave Cristian Brander open (34 points against Portsmouth, including a school-record eleven three-pointers…I’m sure you’ve seen our Family Guy clip), but he was hitting contested shots as well. Jackson Marshall knows he is playing college baseball (at SNHU), and you can see he’s just having fun with this group and putting up a Player of the Year campaign. By the way, Charlie Ludden submitted his resume to the All-Glue Guy team, which the committee immediately accepted.

3. Nashua North- As a basketball fan, that’s you; if you’re reading this, you have to be bummed that Pinkerton and Nashua North do not play during the regular season. Two teams that are so good in transition, as witnessed by Steve Lane’s team’s battle against the champs behind 36 points from Parth Miglani. North lost to a Merrimack team that took the air out of the ball. What they have going for them is the top four teams in this division all play at their pace. That’s going to give them a chance if they can get back to the final four.

4. Portsmouth- I was impressed by the Clippers; this is a team that is going to be a title contender for the next four or five years (they have two stud 8th graders coming..). Sophomores Ryan Swartz (a team-high 20 against Pinkerton) and Isaiah Reis (16 against the Astros) are both terrific, and they have better depth than I anticipated, as both Princeton Daniel and Jackson Jones gave them good minutes off the bench.

5. Manchester Memorial-  Congratulations to my golfing buddy Danny Bryson on his 100th career win. Memorial and West before that are lucky to have him. The Crusaders earned a very good win over Salem on Tuesday night behind 22 points from Christian Bilolo.

6. Windham- The Jaguars earned a good win on the road behind 32 combined points from Jack Koutrobis and Caden Bouchard. I’ll get my first look at Carson Desrosiers' team when they take on Salem next Friday night.

7. Salem- We were just talking about you! The Blue Devils have another 50/50 game tomorrow night at Londonderry. Those games always tend to be close and pretty physical. Ty Miles (14.3 points a game for the Lancers) will be a tough match-up for them.

8. Nashua South- The Panthers have won three in a row, and Josh Caruso is averaging 31.3 points per game during the win streak. That seems pretty good to me..

9. Exeter- Good road win over Manchester Central. Going into the game, Jack Cartwright was averaging 4.2 points per game. He then went out and scored 29 against the Little Green. There’s no way Sudi Lett could have seen that coming…

10. Trinity- Kevin Doherty (15.0), Shawn O’Neil (12.8), and Devohn Ellis (12.6) have given the Pioneers balanced scoring. They shouldn’t sleep on Spaulding tomorrow night, who could hurt them on the glass led by Paul Butler and Hunter Trueman.

 Division II

 Division II Standings, Scoring Leaders, and Gold Level Coaches

 Gold Level Coaches: Peter Pierce of Souhegan, David Smith of Coe-Brown, Joe Morin of Pelham, Mike Donnell of Pembroke, Ryan Kelley of Hollis-Brookline, Rich Otis of Manchester West, Ben Davis of Hanover, Joe Faragher of Kingswood and Steve McDonough of Laconia

1. Manchester West- Tuesday night's match-up with Pelham was postponed. Next up is a match-up against a Hanover team that will try to frustrate them by making the Blue Knights play a much slower pace.

2. Pembroke Academy- It was a huge week for Mike Donnell’s team, with wins over Bow, and defending champion, and previously top-ranked Pelham. Joe Fitzgerald is putting together a player-of-the-year-worthy season for the Spartans.

3. Pelham- The champs get their chance to bounce back when they take on Souhegan tonight. The Pythons were down big late against Pembroke but fought back and had a chance to win it in the final seconds.

4. Laconia- Steve McDonough’s team is rolling, winners of five in a row, including a ‘wait…what was that score again?’ 66-28 takedown of Kennett. Carson Tucker has been playing very well for the Sachems the past two weeks, averaging nearly seven assists a game. 

5. Hanover- That was a good (36-22) win over Coe Brown, and now Ben Davis’s team gets its measuring stick game against undefeated Manchester West. David Frechette has been very good for the Bears. He fills the all-important Glue Guy role and might be the most underrated defender in the division.

6. Coe Brown- Pete Tarrier heads to the David Smith Dome to break the NHsportspage curse. The Bears coaches were frustrated by their loss to Hanover, but this is still a new group, minus Connor Bagnell, and there are going to be growing pains along the way.

7. Plymouth- We are going to cover our first Plymouth basketball game since 2014 on Tuesday at Merrimack Valley and are looking forward to seeing Ben Cronin’s team. Forward Luke Legacy has been really good for the Bobcats, averaging just over 13 rebounds a game.

8. Bow- Good bounce-back win Friday night against Kingswood after the loss to Pembroke. Jake Reardon (19 points) and Peyton Larrabee (15) led the way for Scott Drapeau’s team.

9. Kennett- Good two-game stretch coming up against Oyster River and Manchester West. We’ll find out if the Laconia game was a warning of what was coming or just a really bad night.

10.  Oyster River- Once again, the Bobcats are getting better by the week under ‘the Big Smooth’ Lewis Atkins, earning an impressive 63-56 win over Sanborn that wasn’t as close as the score indicates. Sophomore Matt Jernigan led the way with 18 points.

 Division III

 Division III Standings, Scoring Leaders, and Gold Level Coaches

Gold Level Coaches/Supporters: Nate Camp of Kearsarge, Justin Dibenedetto of Campbell, Jim Hill of Monadnock, Tony Martinez of Belmont, Rick Acquilano of Gilford, Eric Saucier of Conant, David Morissette of St Thomas, Jim Gallagher of Raymond, Matt Dancosee of Stevens and Matt Miller of Hopkinton.

1. Conant- Eric Saucier’s team is 8-0, allowing 32.7 points per game, and owns resume wins over St Thomas, Mascoma, Campbell, and Hopkinton. 

2. St Thomas- The Saints blew out both Belmont and Somersworth to improve to 7-1. Carson Couperthwait has played very well at the forward spot for Dave Morissette’s team. He and Will Mollica give the Saints two of the best rebounders in the division.

3. Mascoma- The Royals lost a tough one at home to Conant but can take a lot out of that game. Closing out a good team is difficult, and that was Silas Ayers’ team's first time having to do it without Zach Thompson (now playing big minutes for Castleton State). They’re going to have more chances…this is a final-four team.

4. Gilford- The champs stay at three, but we’ve seen a gap between three and four develop. The Golden Eagles struggled to beat White Mountains on Friday night (who turned around and lost to Groveton in their next game) and dropped a game to Belmont on Tuesday night. I still think they will be there in the end, but with a new group, they will need to get better over the next five weeks.

5. Campbell- The Cougars hung with Conant for a half before the Orioles pulled away for a sixteen-point win. Let’s see how they fare tomorrow night at St Thomas.

6. Hopkinton- Nice job by Matt Miller’s team to earn two good wins over Kearsarge (44-40 and 47-46). They’ll face Gilford next Tuesday in a semifinal rematch.

7. Kearsarge- It has been great seeing Cougars guard Noah Whipple back healthy and playing well. He is coming on strong, averaging 22 points a game in his last three contests. As Nate Camp’s team rounds into form, they’re going to look more & more like a final-four sleeper.

8. Raymond- Jim Gallagher’s team took care of business in a 51-43 win over Epping behind a 25-point performance from all-state point guard Drezell Duffaunt.

9. Belmont- Tony Martinez’s team got a big, momentum-shifting win over Gilford on Tuesday night as Anakin Underhill scored 17 points and was the best player on the floor. 

10. White Mountains- The Spartans have lost back-to-back games against Gilford and Groveton but can get back on the winning track tomorrow night when they head to Meredith to play White Mountains. 

Division IV

 Division IV Standings, Scoring Leaders, and Gold Level Coaches

 Gold Level Coaches/Supporters: Jamie Walker of Woodsville, Jay Darrah of Pittsfield, David Bedard of Franklin, Mark Collins of Groveton, Nick Tzannos of Mascenic, Greg Farland of Concord Christian, Mitchell Roy of Profile, Matt Manning of Lin Wood and Josiah Riley of Pittsburg Canaan

1. Littleton- We’ll see Trevor Howard’s Crusaders for the first time tomorrow night in Farmington. Littleton used a 19-12 second quarter to take a thirteen-point halftime lead over Groveton in a 65-54 victory last Friday night.

2. Profile- I talked about the Patriots at length on Sunday’s podcast. They look comfortable on offense, and everyone seems to have found their role. Cayden Wakeham and Glue-Guy Jackson Clough have a ton of game experience under their belts at this point, and Mitchell Roy’s team looks like a true title contender.

3. Woodsville- Even with two losses to Littleton and Profile, the Engineers are not vacating the top 3. They need to find their voice out on the floor, and I mean that literally. No one is rounding up the group for team huddles or answering back when the other team punches them in the mouth (I do not mean that literally). My guess is it will be Connor Houston, but someone needs to fill the (vital) role Cam Davidson filled the past two seasons.

4. Derryfield- They are a better team with Zach Martin now back from injury. Ed Meade’s team has a good one looming on Tuesday night when Portsmouth Christian comes to Manchester.

5. Portsmouth Christain- The Eagles are 7-1; here are their next four games: Profile tomorrow night, at Derryfield on Tuesday, Holy Family next Friday, and at Farmington the week after. We’re going to learn everything we need to know about Derek Summers’ team in those four games. 

6. Holy Family- The Griffins earned a ten-point win over Newmarket behind 31 points combined from Gabe Lacasse and Enzo Yonkeau. They now travel north to face Woodsville in a championship game rematch.

7. Farmington- The Tigers get their second measuring stick game tomorrow night when Littleton rolls in. Shawn Murphy and Jacob Chapman combined for 38 points in a win over Mount Royal last Friday night.

8. Groveton- The Eagles, we plan to cover the Colebrook game on February 2nd, have been up and down but played Littleton tough and just knocked off White Mountains 55-48 on Tuesday night behind 27 points from Kaden Cloutier. 

9. Gorham- Isaac Langlois (22.6 ppg) has been as good as advertised. Big one against Groveton last night with winnable games against Berlin and Lin Wood coming up..the Huskies can make a move up the standings.

10. Colebrook- The Mohawks hang on, barely, to the ten spot after three straight losses. Their upcoming stretch of games sees them playing six of their next seven games against teams ranked ahead of them on this list. So they’re going to need to figure it out quickly.