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The HK Photography Thursday Thoughts

By Dave Haley, 02/26/14, 11:15PM EST

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Mascenic's Jared Stauffeneker went over the 1,000 point mark this week

With a light slate of games Friday night we’re going with a shorter version of the Thursday Thoughts before we jump into the postseason next week and preview every single tournament game in the state over the next three weeks.
 

Also tune in Saturday morning from 8 to 9 to the New Hampshire high School Hoop Show for our special Bracketology hour. Colebrook Academy head coach Buddy Trask joins us first to help break down the Division IV playoff picture followed by Hopkinton’s Dave Chase breaking down Division III, Pelham’s Matt Regan breaking down Division II and Merrimack’s Tim Goodridge with his breakdown of Division I. 
 
Division I
Manchester Memorial (8-9) at Winnacunnet (11-6)
The coverage of Manchester Memorial is sponsored by 900 Degrees Pizzaria

  Jay McKenna’s team has locked themselves into the 6 seed in the tournament and will go into senior night without any real pressure because of it. One prominent Division I coach I spoke to on Wednesday told me Memorial was a lower seeded teams he’s rather not see again. Jack Quirk’s team was given a lift with the return of Wade Gop and this is a Crusaders team that can flat out score. Defend? Not so much…but boy they can score with Trevon Moughn (24.8 ppg.) and Kabongo Ngalakulondi (17.9).

 The Warriors got a nice game out of forward Seth Edwards in a 37-30 win over Alvirne and it illustrated something we discussed with McKenna on last week’s radio show; players have improved around Richie Ruffin & Sam Knollmeyer and this is a team with designs on a final four run to Durham because of it.
 
 Nashua North (5-12) at Alvirne (5-12)

 The Broncos, Titans and Manchester West all sit at 5-12 and in spots 15, 16 & 17 in the Division I standings. That means the winner here is in at 6-12 while the loser would have to hope West loses at Concord on Friday night. Both Alvirne & Nashua North own wins over Manchester West but again, a win here would make all the tie-breakers irrelevant.

 What do the winners get? How about behind Door #1 a trip to 18-0 Manchester Central and behind Door #2 a trip to 17-1 Trinity? If I was a head coach given those options I might ask if someone could build door #3…

 Steve Lane has done a very nice job with an undersized team and he has gotten huge scoring of late from Jordan Lates who carried his team to a huge road win at Bishop Guertin.  For Seth Garon’s Alvirne team it has been a bad eight minute stretch that has seemed to doom them on nearly a nightly basis. In Tyler Brown and Sam Bonney-Liles the Broncos have two all-state level players and a head coach with a track record of winning tournament games in March; they just have been maddeningly inconsistent from quarter to quarter. The loss to Winnacunnet was just the most recent example as Alvirne was tied at the half but could muster only 10 points in the second half on route to their 12th loss of the season.
 
 Division II
 Hanover (11-6) at Windham (9-8)

 Tim Winslow’s team is making what feels like an annual late February run and it may just land them a top 8 seed and a home playoff game. To make that a reality Hanover needs to beat a talented Windham team on the road and earn their seventh win in nine games. John Flory has had a very big hand in the late run and his ability to score against a solid Jaguars defense could be the biggest factor.

 Windham has lost three of their last four games and right now looks like they will be either the 10 or the 11 seed in next week’s tournament.
 
 Division III
 Prospect Mountain (10-7) at Berlin (15-2)

 Tom Bourdeau’s team can finish as high as eight and as low as thirteen when the seeds come out Monday morning (why do you think we need the bracketology show every year..?). Bourdeau has gotten steady play from Logan LaRoche (14.6 ppg.) and center Zach Robertson (13.8) all season long.

 It has been trying season for Don Picard up north as injuries and suspensions have cut into what was our #2 pick in the pre-season. Still they march along and with the combination of depth & constant defensive pressure Berlin is a win away from a top 4 seed for the fourth consecutive season.

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