Games tip this afternoon all over New England between 1:30pm and 4pm. We'll be watching both the Kimball Union @ Wilbraham & Monson game (2pm tip) and Northfield Mount Hermon @ Brewster Academy game (4pm tip) while tracking all other Semifinal matchups in Classes A, AA and AAA.
 

Since the NEPSAC did away with neutral court games (almost entirely) the team with the higher seed will host games today with the exception of the New Hampton vs. St. Thomas More game which will be played at Worcester Academy at 1:30pm

For your convenience, here's a link to the games that are being streamed live by the home school.  

• Class AA - Kimball Union @ Wilbraham & Monson - 2pm Tip
• Class AAA - Northfield Mount Hermon @ Brewster Academy - 4pm Tip

For more immediate game updates follow me on Twitter: @EBlessNHSP

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3:00pm Update

Kimball came out ready to play in this game from the start jumping out to a 5-0 lead.  Their defensive intensity has been a step up from their game vs. Vermont Acadmey in the Quarterfinals especially from Malcom Brent and Crew Ainge who have been fantastic with their ball pressure early. 

I mentioned on Twitter this morning that the Okonoboh/Abu matchup would get most the press but the game would be decided by the guards and so far I haven't been wrong.  Between Brent, Ainge and Oliver Tot off the bench the guards of Kimball have outplayed the Titan backcourt forcing turnovers and getting easy buckets on the other end.  

Okonoboh and Abu have both been excellent with the slight edge going to Abu early.  They've equally been intimidating in the lane blocking shots and gobbling rebounds but Abu has enabled the Kimball guards to attack and get open looks as well as hitting a few buckets of his own while Goodluck has been largely bottled up by Abu and pressure for the guards whenever he gets the ball on the block.  To win this one WMA needs guys like Curtis Cobb to step up and take some of the scoring load - but before that happens they need to take care of the ball and limit turnovers which are killing them.

KUA leads 33-18 at the break.

In other action New Hampton has led St. Thomas Moore by about 10 for the good part of the 2nd half of their game.  At the time of this post they lead 70-62 with 7:15 to play in the game which is being played at Worcester Academy.

St. Andrews leads Cushing 30-26 in a rematch of the 2013 NEPSAC Class AA championship game.  St. Andrews is surely out for revenge as they battle for a trip back to Endicott tomorrow.

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3:30pm Update

More of the same for Kimball in the 2nd half as they quickly pushed the lead to 25 with under 10 to play. With Cobb not able to get going for WMA their offense really struggled without a playmaker or scorer from the outside.  Okonoboh is one of those players who is skilled offensively but really requires his teammates to create for him and get him the ball in a position to score either at the rim or deep in the paint.  That offense nevery really matriculated other than a few times here and there for the Titans today and ultimately led to their defeat.  Okonoboh finished with 14 for WMA.

Kimball was up for this game from the start and their starting 5 was excellent with all of them contributing whether it was Ainge and Brent on the outside playing D and hitting jumpers or Tot creating and Abu controlling the paint area.  Kimball gets a little redemption for their 10 point loss at the hands of WMA just a few weeks ago in their gym.  Abu finished with 16 points and an excellent shooting night for Malcom Brent led to 14 for him.  A complete performance for Mike Olsons crew who will move on to face the winner of the St. Andrews/Cushing matchup.

In other action St. Andrews and Cushing have been locked in a game that's been close all afternoon.  St. Andrews has led most of the game but Cushing hasn't let it stretch more than 5 in the last 5 minutes.  With 43 seconds left Nashua, NH's Kaleb Joseph hit a 3 to bring Cushing with 1 64-63.  Jalen Adams then came down on the next possession and scored giving Cushing their first lead of the 2nd half.  Cushing ends up winning 67-64 to meet Kimball in the finals.  We'll work on getting some footage of the end fo this game as a couple of video production folks on Twitter were there and should have something for us.  

Also look forward to highlights from CoreyPorterTV of the WMA/KUA game tomorrow.

Brewster and NMH tip in about 20 minutes - updates to follow!

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4:45pm Update

With the Class AA final set Brewster and Northfield Mount Hermon tipped off at 4pm to claim the final spot in the Class AAA championship tomorrow at 5pm at Endicott College. 

These two teams met twice this year with the Bobcats winning both games.  The early pace was to Brewsters liking as they were able to get out in the open court and make some plays at the rim.  They built several early leads of 5-7 only to see NMH battle back and get the game within 1 on several occassions.  Its been about what you'd expect of these two teams.  Brewster is a high-energy/push the ball type of team who plays pressure defense while NMH relys on taking care of the ball and making perimiter jumpers and picking their spots on the lane off penetration.  Brewster is prone to turnovers due to their style and if NMHs shots aren't falling they can go periods of time without scoring as well.  

One of Brewsters biggest advantages against most teams is the combination of Jonah Bolden and Isaac Copeland.  As I mentioned in a tweet they're both very lean, fast, athletic and can run the floor despite their height.  This really ties in nicely with Brewsters style of play and early they were the go to guys for the Bobcats in creating several of their 5-7 point leads. They typically play the 3 and/or 4 positions for the Bobcats (although they can fill in at the 5 as well) and the Hoggers just don't have a good defensive matchup for them.

Brewster picked up their play near the end of the second half with Donovan Mitchel and Max Twyman hitting back to back 3's to give Brewster a 8 point advantage at halftime, 38-30.  Ian Sistare and Daquon Ervin really haven't been able to get it going yet but JoshSharma has been strong inside for the Hoggers.

Should be a good second half I wouldn't expect NMH to fold.  In the matchup at Brewster earlier in the year it was as similar sort of game and NMH barreled back to make it a close contest late.  

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5:30pm Update

Big update in this blog post is that Phillips Exeter has defeated Buckingham, Browne and Nichols in convincing fashion 67-50 to move on to the Class A Championship tomorrow at 1pm at Endicott College.  

They'll meet Hotchkiss who was able to go on the road and defeat Trinity-Pawling who they'd lost twice to earlier in the year.  Hotchkiss led this game 29-22 at the half and held on to win 62-58 to advance.

In the Brewster/Northfield Mount Hermon game the Hoggers were never really able to put together a serious rally to get the game close.  Brewster was able to extend the lead into double digits early in the half and never looked back extending to over 15 midway through the half.  

Brewster has so many weapons whether its Graham, Copeland, Bolden, Mitchell, Terrell or Jarred Rueter who's a force down low.  Then they bring Max Twyman off the bench who's a deadly shooter committeed to UAlbany.  Kevin Zabo who's committed to San Diego State didn't even play in this game as he was sick...lets hope he's ready to go tomorrow for the Championship.

In the end Northfield just didn't have the big guns they did last year to outlast the Bobcats in the final.  Brewster never trailed and ulitmately won 82-66 - they'll meet their in state rival New Hampton at 5pm for the Class AAA title at Endicott College tomorrow.  

This just in - video footage of Jalen Adams put back to give Cushing the lead in the waning seconds of their Semifinal win over St. Andrews...

• Jalen Adams Putback (YouTube)
• Baseline Shot of the Putback (YouTube)

Thank for all that read the Live Blog today - if we have Internet at Endicott we'll do it again tomorrow, we'll find out when we get there.  If not, look for recaps of all the championship games and videos from our partners of the action on Sunday Night or Monday. 

#MarchMadness is back!