Brewster, St. Andrews and Choate Rosemary Hall all earned #1 seeds heading into this weeks NEPSAC Class AAA, AA and A tournaments. Winners will be crowned Sunday March 2 at Endicott College in Beverly, MA.
 

Class AAA

Brewster narrowly beat out St. Thomas More for the top seed as they finished their 10-game Class AAA schedule 9-1.  The two top seeds split their regular season matchups with St. Thomas More winning 83-79 on December 7th and Brewster getting their revenge 98-91 on February 12th - their 11th win during their current 16-game winning streak.

The two will be the favorites to meet at Endicott on Sunday but don’t count out defending champion Northfield Mount Hermon, New Hampton or South Kent who are all capable of upsetting either of the top two seeds.  This season the Quarterfinals and Semifinals will played at the home of the higher seed whereas in previous years the entire tournament was held at a neutral location(s).  

The Championship will be played Sunday, March 2 @ 5pm at Endicott College.

Class AA

St. Andrews finished the season undefeated at 14-0 in conference and have easily been the most dominant team in Class AA.  There’s one team they haven’t played this season and that’s Meriden, NH’s Kimball Union Academy who holds a respectable 14-2 in conference record.  Kimball has the size, speed and athleticism to play with St. Andrews and they’ll be one of many contenders looking to get to Endicott.  

Without a doubt this is one of the strongest classes top to bottom.  With Cushing, Tilton, Wilbraham and Marianapolis all capable of running the table its going to be an exciting week of playoff games.  Class AA has two of the best big men in the nation, Wilbraham’s Goodluck Okonoboh (UNLV) and Kimball’s Malik Abu (NC State)...and likely the best backcourt in all of America in Cushing’s Jalen Adams (Undeclared) and Kaleb Joseph (Syracuse) - a backcourt that brought Cushing home the Class AA title last year on an Adams buzzer beater from 30 feet. 

The Championship will be played Sunday, March 2 @ 3pm at Endicott College.

Class A

Adam Finkelstein has once again put together a very impressive squad over at Choate running the table in their Class A schedule. Choate’s two losses on the year have come from Class AAA’s Northfield Mount Hermon and internationally based Canarias.  They’ve handled the bulk of their conference schedule with ease but only beat Hotchkiss by 1 and had Trinity Pawling at home, both of which could pose a threat to the Choate who will be looking to return to the championship game for the 3rd straight year (they lost in 2012 and 2013).  

Phillips Exeter is back in the playoffs again as coach Jay Tilton has his squad playing better as of late and they’ll look to defend their Class A title. Gone is the bulk of the 2013 championship team but they’ve got the tools and will host Tabor in their first round.

The Championship will be played Sunday, March 2 @ 1pm at Endicott College.

NH is once again well-represented in the NEPSAC tournaments with Brewster, New Hampton, Tilton, KUA and Phillips Exeter all making appearances.  Holderness (who just missed the 8 seed in Class AA) and St. Pauls will look to make it back to the postseason in 2014-2015.