We are back with the Thursday Thoughts, previewing the biggest & most interesting games around the state in all four divisions.

 We will be out at two games Friday night. Jennifer Chick-Ruth & I will be in Woodsville as two undefeated rivals square off when defending champion Littleton rolls in.

 Meanwhile Pete Tarrier & The Great Jon Kesty will be in Nashua when Matt Regan’s Bishop Guertin Cardinals take on Nate Stanton’s Londonderry Lancers.

 Remember when parents register for our premioum access we get the picture for their son or daughters player profile page. That’s why you see certain players in our scoring leaders with color pictures and some without. Those are the families who support our team.

 Hollis-Brookline Team Page

 We’d love to see every player featured!

 Thank you to our newest Gold Level supporters/members Jay McKenna of Winnacunnet, Nate Camp of Kearsarge, Jeff Holmes of Exeter and Andy Giaconia (father of Stephen) of Hollis-Brookline

 

 Division I

 Londonderry (1-2) at Bishop Guertin (1-1)

 Two very good coaches who are currently trying to set their team straight early in the season.

 Nate Stanton’s Lancers had a tough draw to open the season with a trip to Rochester to face Spaulding followed by a test at Bedford (yes the Bulldogs held Merrimack to 13 points Tuesday night…That. Happened).  

 Jake Coleman was injured during the holiday tournament (he’s back), the Lancers had a player dismissed from the team and a group that played so well in the fall league couldn’t get stops or find any rhythm offensively in their first two games.

 Other than that Nate Stanton had a great holiday & New Year.

 A win Tuesday night over Trinity (Box Score) got them on the board when Ethan Garofalo stepped up with 17 points. Now they’ll have to travel to play a BG team that will be bigger at just about every position on the floor.

 Matt Regan is working through his lineup, gaining the trust of his players and assessing strengths, weaknesses & attitudes on the fly.  BG gave up 13 three pointers to Exeter Tuesday night. The Blue Hawks can really shoot it and Jeff Holmes runs some really good sets to get them good  looks but 13 is a ton of three’s to give up.

 Bishop Guertin’s Pat Donovan scored 19 points in an opening win over Concord and then went scoreless Tuesday night while Mike Rinko has been good at times but mostly inconsistent. That’s the theme early on; Regan doesn’t know who he is getting production out of from one night to next.

 Two games in that shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. New coach, new style and everyone is feeling the situation out. Friday night Londonderry hopes to swoop in and take advantage of that.

 Against a team like the Lancers BG will need to be ready to go from the opening tip. One of these teams is walking out of this one feeling like they might be righting the ship while the losing team will see their struggles continue.

 

 Alvirne (2-0) at Manchester Memorial (1-2)

 Interesting game in Manchester tomorrow night. Max Bonney-Liles is one of the best outside shooters in Division I and head coach Brian Lynch does a really nice job of getting plays going towards the basket in his motion offense.  

 Alvirne does a good job of sharing the basketball and a guard heavy lineup should be a good match-up against a Memorial team that likes to beat you with their pressure and up tempo pace.

 Memorial got beat up by Portsmouth in the first quarter Tuesday night, trailing 20-4, but scrapped back to outscore the Clippers in the second half. Jack Quirk’s team has the pieces; they’re just going to have to commit to defending on long possessions in the half court to make another run at Durham, where they have ended up in two of the last three seasons.

 Jake Carrier can get to the rim, score from the mid-range or hit from behind the three point line, as his four three’s against Winnacunnet proved. Michael Roumraj gets in the middle of everything and has the quickest first step on the team while Tyson Thomas does a very nice job at the point.

 The player to watch is Manny Alisandro. The 6’3 forward tends to settle for three pointers at times but when he squares up and gets to the baseline he’s really hard to stop & finishes well in traffic. Alisandro missed two long jumpers early and was really a non-factor until he scored 11 points in the fourth quarter as Memorial battled to keep the score respectable.

 If Quirk can get his forward going to the baseline it makes the Crusaders less reliant on three pointers (Elvin Barbosa’s specialty) and Carrier having to create his own shot.

 

 Division II

 Pelham (3-0) at John Stark (2-1)

 Good one in Division II as these two teams meet up again after Pelham took a two year trip to Division III.

 Pelham grinded out a physical game with Windham on Tuesday night and will have to do the same against a John Stark team led by power forward Drew McQuarrie. The Generals will push the pace when they can but early on they have been a team that relies on their rebounding and balanced scoring, led by McQuarrie and Cooper Gorski.

 Whether it is a zone defense or special attention from guards like Isaiah Lovering they will need to focus their defense on Division II’s leading scorer Kyle Frank (Kyle Frank Player Page). This is a Python offense that spreads you out with Joe Pantaleo & Blake Woekel on the baseline and freshman Drew Brown out on the perimeter.

 If Stark goes zone look for Brown to try and exploit it.

 

 Division III

 Kearsarge Regional (3-2) at Mascenic Regional (3-2)

 Kearsarge got a very good road win Tuesday night in a game we covered in Litchfield.  Pre-season Player of the Year Tayler Mattos (29.2 ppg.) went for 49 points while Tommy Johnson ‘chipped in’ with 21 of his own.

 They will face a Mascenic team that is going to struggle with Mattos’ size. Most teams do, but Mascenic runs basically a five out offense and beats you with their perimeter shooting. Head coach Jay Starr is going to have to have someone planted on the weak side of the paint so the Royals don’t get killed over the top like Campbell did.

 Daimon Gibson (Daimon Gibson Player Page) has been terrific early on and if there was a team you were starting with only Division III players it would be Mattos, Johnson, Alex Schwarz & Gibson at the top of the list. Gibson has room to operate up top because he has Brett Stauffeneker (14 ppg.) and freshman Trey Shaw out on the wing along with fellow freshman Sam Stauffeneker.  Expect Kearsarge to show zone looks and Mascenic to try and penetrate & kick to the wing against it.

 Mascenic is going the Manchester Memorial ‘We’re going to try to beat everyone 82-77’ route with mixed results. Their best offensive team on the floor doesn’t look anything like their best five man defensive unit. There’s no way Nate Camp is going to try win a shootout in New Ipswich Friday night. He’s going to pound the ball into the low post to see what that opens up and Kearsarge will be patient looking for it.

 Mascenic’s recipe of jump shooting and winning by outscoring people is going to work on a lot of nights simply because this is a very talented group and Jay Starr puts his players in the right spot.

 If Mascenic can’t prove they can defend though that won’t get them where they want to go in March, where tournament games are routinely won in the 40’s. This is a team with title aspirations and they are clearly good enough to be the last team standing, but they’ll have to prove they can play defense to make it happen.

 

 Stevens (4-0) at Monadnock (3-2)

 Franklin going over to Monadnock and beating Jim Hill’s Huskies was the surprise Division III score of Tuesday night. Jayden Torres (little brother of Kenny) hit a moon ball floater at the buzzer for the victory, and very nice win for Franklin.

 Monadnock has one of the toughest schedules in the division so there will be little mystery in terms of their legitimacy come March. Joe Minson (17.5 ppg.) and JT Cloutier will match up well with a talented Stevens team led by point guard Noah Spaulding (18 ppg.), Parker Smith (who missed time over the holidays), Henri Bourque and the O’Brien brothers Zach & Nick.

 These are teams with a lot of football players on them and no one within 10 miles of Monadnock high school needs to be reminded of how their undefeated season ended. Stevens shocked the Huskies and rolled on to the Division III title.

 Expect there to be some lingering feelings from that afternoon when these two tip it off Friday night.

 

 Division IV

 Littleton (5-0) at Woodsville (4-0)

 Big one Friday night in what will be a packed house in Woodsville. Jennifer Chick-Ruth & I will bring you all the highlights and post-game interviews.

 The strength of last season’s Woodsville team was how patient they were on offense and how well they took care of the basketball. That was in very large part due to all-state point guard Derek Maccini and his ability to feed the post to Sam Pushee (Player Profile) and find Jaret Bemis in rhythm on the perimeter.

 This year Jamie Walker’s team has no point guard. The Engineers have a backcourt that can score in returning starter Garrett Olsen and fellow shooting guard Eric Thornton (13.8 ppg.) but this is a team that turned the ball over 32 times against Colebrook, and won. If they turn the ball over 32 times on Friday night they’re going to lose by 30. Woodsville knows this.

 Jamie Walker’s team will have to break pressure by passing the ball and be smart enough to take the ten second call instead of throwing the ball away and handing Littleton a transition opportunity. Pushee can shoot it from 15 feet, giving him the ability to run a very effective high/low with bruising power forward Cooper Davidson (13.8). Woodsville has to go right at all-state center (and nemesis) Logan Briggs (Player Profile) and attack Littleton from the inside out. Briggs will get his blocks, he’s the best shot blocker in Division IV, but with Pushee and Davidson attacking the glass you’re going to force freshman Danny Kubkowski to guard the post. They’ll look to test the freshman there.

 Trevor Howard’s team on the other hand wants to turn the Woodsville home court into what might feel like a phone booth (remember phone booths? Kids’ reading this don’t...) and feast off of turnovers.

 These teams have been playing each other for three straight seasons with the end goal being the last team standing at Plymouth in March.

 Winner here earns the tie-breaker in the only regular season match-up.

 

 Pittsfield (4-1) at Newmarket (5-0)

 Another good match-up between two teams competing for a home playoff game in March.

 Newmarket has the height and the man to man discipline to run Cam Darrah (Player Profile) off the three point line and into their frontcourt. Darrah is the best outside shooter in the Division (take it easy Groveton I’m going with Darrah but I like Corey Gadwah going to the hoop over Cam..) but he can struggle to finish at the basket. Jamie Hayes needs to send a steady diet of defenders to run Darrah off the line and make him either kick it out to another shooter or look to Josh Whittier (12.2 ppg.) in the paint.

 On the other end of the court head coach Jay Darrah will have to deal with the Mules Anthony Senesombath (a Division IV leading 28.6 ppg.).

 What Jamie Hayes sees in his leading scorer is someone who gets his shots in the rhythm of the offense and not by forcing looks to get on track. Newmarket has four or five different players who can step up on any given night as Craig Hounam and Tyler Quintanilla have proven already.

 This is a Pittsfield team looking for that marque win. You have teams that are true contenders like Groveton, Littleton, Epping and Woodsville. Teams that have proved themselves whether it was this season or last, and then you have your good/bad teams.

 That’s the team that beats all the teams below them and loses to all the teams ranked above. I don't think Pittsfield is that team, in fact I think Colebrook is that team, but this group needs a marque win.

 A road win at Newmarket would absolutely qualify.

 

 If we don’t have your roster and statistics…where have you been?? Send me an email at davehaley@nhsportspage.com and we will get you caught up!

We get text messages after games with the box scores and emails as well. I don’t care how you send stats…I will add them.

(I’m looking at you Nashua North & Merrimack..)

 

 Listen in to the New Hampshire High School Hoop Show Saturday morning from 9 to 11 am as Pete Tarrier & I will give you all the scores from every Friday night games, plus insight & analysis on the state of high school basketball in New Hampshire.  Our guests Saturday morning will be Merrimack head coach Tim Goodridge and Littleton head coach Trevor Howard.

 You can hear the show by clicking the "listen live" button right on our homepage, or by searching for ESPN NH on the TuneIn Radio app or locally on 900AM (Nashua area) or 1250AM (Manchester area).