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 Division I

 Merrimack (6-1) at Exeter (5-1)

 Who saw this coming?

 Put your hand down you didn’t….no one saw Exeter (three starters lost) and Merrimack (seven of their top nine) coming out of the gate a combined 11-2.

 So how are they doing it?

 Well Exeter is one of the best shooting teams in the state and if you overplay Cody Morissette (19.3 ppg.) and Stephen Natola (15.2) you are leaving shooters like Bobby Cliche (11.2) open. Jeff Holmes is doing a really good coaching job with this group. It feels like the rotation has been tightened up and players know & accept their roles.

 A 5-1 start only hammers home the message that if they play as a team they can beat anybody on any night….maybe even that team up 95 North.

 Merrimack is winning by putting the ball in the hands of all-state guard Ian Cummings (16.7 ppg.) and letting him facilitate the offense. Credit Bedford for figuring this out and playing a 2-3 zone that essentially doubled Cummings at the top of the key and forced big guys like Danny McKillop, already hyped up after the Merrimack/Bedford football semifinal, to create his own offense.

 So credit to Bedford’s Mark Elmendorf. Merrimack though won’t get caught with that strategy twice.

 This is a game of pace, as it usually is when these two coaches get together. Tim Goodridge isn’t opposed to getting up & down the floor with certain groups, his team a year ago had kids like Zach Kerr & Mike Dudash who loved getting out & going but this is a half court team and they will not attempt to run with Exeter.

 Exeter feels like if they get to 65 points they win and I don’t disagree.

 Jennifer Chick-Ruth and I will be in Exeter Friday night and will bring you all the highlights and team wide post-game interview with the winning team and coach.

 

 Bedford (5-1) at Portsmouth (7-0)

 So let’s talk about this Portsmouth team…

 First of all they basically have a full time coaching staff, nothing wrong with that, but no team has the level of film work and resources that the Clippers do. That is one reason why this team seems to be four steps ahead of everyone else.

 These are also very smart basketball players. Players like Shon Parham, Joey Glynn, Cody Graham, Christian Peete…they understand where they need to be on the floor and they understand that if option one is taken away where they need to get to for options two & three.

 They haven’t needed to get to option three very often.

 Every kid can shoot from 1 tom 10. They can pressure you full court because they have rim protection in back and guards out front from Parham (critically underrated) to Peete (he’s a first team all-defensive player) to freshman Jamaal Shaheed.

 They close off the baseline (where they trap you) better than any team I’ve seen and here is the difference between them and the last great team I covered; the 2014 Manchester Central team.

 That team went 22-0 with Brett Hanson (Division II player today), Jon Martin (ditto), Joey Martin (ditto), Dawson Dickson (Division III) and Tyler Kelly (chucking weights around a Planet Fitness as we speak).

 Doc Wheeler’s Central team, by the way can we stop to point out that both teams had/have one of the five best coaches in the state (my unofficial list is Jim Mulvey, Tim Goodridge, Mark Collins, Buddy Trask & Tim Cronin).

 Here is the difference between those two teams.

 That Central team was unbelievable on offense , every bit as good as Portsmouth, maybe better and very solid defensively.

 This Portsmouth team has the best offense in the state and….the best defense as well.

 They are elite at both ends like few teams I’ve covered in nine years.

 That doesn’t mean they are rolling to a title or even a top seed but it is where they stand today as we near mid-season.

 So back to Bedford, to be fair we’ve written a lot about Bedford lately and right now Portsmouth is the talk of the state.

 They have the size, intelligence/discipline and patience (they’ll make Portsmouth work on defense) to win this game.

 This is a team I really enjoy watching, can’t say enough good things about the job Mark Elmendorf is doing, but if the gap is wide who out there in Division I can beat the Clippers, who have now won 29 games in a row?

 

 

 Division II

 Lebanon (5-0) at Hollis-Brookline (4-1)

 First big test of the season for the Raiders as the Cavaliers will be the first team they have faced with a winning record.

 Mike Soucy’s team has the size down low with Mike Simco (13.6 ppg.)and Matt Dowling(7.8) to match up with Lebanon’s frontcourt of Matt Eylander (8.7) & Chris Nulty (9.2).

 They will try to get Lebanon to settle for three pointers (where they are pretty good) rather than going to the paint or the baseline (where they are extremely good).

 KJ Matte will not be back from this one and his return date is uncertain. With a foot injury you are better off coming back a week later than a week earlier (like Joey Glynn did at Portsmouth). Graham Chickering has been terrific in running this offense and that has allowed Ryan Milliken (17.5) to play the same position and spots on the floor that he did while KJ was running the point.

 Hollis-Brookline is going to need big games out of Nick Fothergill (15.2) and Stephen Giaconia (8.2 but I sense the breakout game coming ..) to beat Lebanon. Nothing spectacular because Hollis-Brookline has the depth to win this game, especially on their home court, but they need to at least match the output of Chickering & Milliken.

 Pete Tarrier & The Great Jon Kesty will bring you all the highlights and post-game interviews with the winning team and coach.

 

 Coming next week our annual Division III & IV mid-season snapshot where we pick the two teams we see meeting on the final weekend of the season and all-state picks and coach of the first half honors.

 

 Division III

 Gilford (6-2) at Somersworth (7-2)

 The renewal of a once very testy rivalry.

 The last time these two teams played in Somersworth Golden Eagles all-state guard Josh Joyce got thrown to the floor after being tangled up with a Hilltoppers defender, went to punch the player in retaliation but wisely pulled back, and still was suspended for the remainder of the season and two playoff games in his final season.

 So you can see why these two teams haven’t played annually since.

 None of the kids on the floor Friday night were involved that evening and none of it will factor into this game. Both of these teams are being viewed with a wary eye across the division.

 Yes 7-2 and 6-2 are impressive records at the midway point but who have they beaten and where do they rank behind teams like Hopkinton & Kearsarge?

 Somersworth head coach Rob Fauci, doing a very good job in his second season, has extended pressure defensively to utilize the quickness of guards like Bryton Early (15.9 ppg.) The Hilltoppers are trying to steal (literally) 12 points a night with their defense and this is a much better team in transition than they are in the half court.

 Gilford’s best match-up night to night against man to man defenses is getting Mason McGonagle down in the post (16.2). McGonagle is only 6’0 but when he goes against a player his size or even an inch or two taller he uses very good instincts to score on the block. The senior forward does a really nice job of using his body to ward off shot blockers and he finishes through contact.

 Against Franklin Tuesday night Gilford trailed all game long until they went at a smaller Franklin team (Dana Bean is playing terrific for Colby Sawyer btw) with McGonagle in the post. If they wait that long against Somersworth it will be too late.

 Chance Ennis, Somersworth’s 6’4 center, did not play against St Thomas and won’t again tomorrow night.

 Friday night Gilford needs to attack the middle in a game that could serve as a playoff tie-breaker down the line.

 

 Division IV

 Wilton-Lyndeborough (2-5) at Groveton (8-0)

  Groveton is steaming towards their game at Littleton next Friday night, a game that Jon Kesty & I , the fire marshal and about 800 people up north will be crammed in the Crusaders gym to watch.

 Expect a 500 word preview on that one next week so let’s focus on my pre-season #2 Wilton-Lyndeborough.

 Why are they 2-5 and staring at 2-6 after eight games?

 They haven’t gotten the guard play they were hoping for and on Friday night it will likely fall on the shoulders of all-state center and Division IV scoring leader Trey Carrier (27.0 ppg.) to not only score 30 points and collect 15 rebounds but bring the ball up through pressure as well.

 We haven't seen one team rely on one player that much since Teen Wolf (you had to see that joke coming…).

 Sean McClure (15.7)  is doing Sean McClure things; he’s rebounding, getting his nose in the middle of everything coming off the rim and even scoring close to 16 points a night. What more can you ask?

 The guard play hasn't been there though and so teams are basically throwing three guys at Carrier & McClure and letting two defenders monitor the other three players on the floor.

 This was a team that vowed to run in the pre-season but first year head coach Leo Gershgorin has wisely dialed it back and with the new approach they were able to hang around all night against a good Division III Mascenic team.

 Groveton isn’t going to allow them to slow it up. They will press & trap and they play as hard as any team I’ve watched in the state this season. This is it for Corey Gadwah (who by the way went over 1,500 career points the other night..think about that) & Daegan Perras and they are playing like it every night.

 Wilton-Lyndeborough comes first but the game is next Friday night when they travel to play the champs.

 

 Epping (6-1) at Lisbon (5-4)

 Let me stop to answer your question you are posing to your computer/mobile device…

 Yes…Lisbon is 5-4.

 How did America’s Team get here? That’s the better question.

 Lisbon, Profile (5-3) and Colebrook (5-4) are picking off the bottom teams in the division.

 Teams like Gorham (1-7…my buddy Lance Legere and Bryson Raymond come to play every night), Canaan-Pittsburg (if you haven’t been to Pittsburg it is beautiful and the Buck Rub Pizza Pub is where I watched Tom Brady return from his ridiculous suspension against Cleveland) and Lin-Wood (2-7 after a ton of points graduated). 

 That explains why Profile, who lost to Groveton 71-32 and Lisbon, who lost to Littleton 83-24 and Groveton 84-21..still might win 11 games each.  

 Let’s be clear…kids like River Baker (14.0) & Jordan Brusseau of Profile and Josh Woods (6th in scoring at 18.3 ppg.) deserve credit for winning these games and taking care of business and I’m here to give it to them. Profile’s Paul Greenlaw works with his players year round to build that program and Lisbon’s Sam Natti is doing a tremendous coaching job with his group.

 The facts though are that those three teams in the North Country currently sit at a combined 3-22.

 Sam Natti has an 8th grader as his 6th man and a starting forward in Jacob Deem (who has played very hard for the Panthers) who hadn’t played organized basketball since 4th grade, and they stand at 5-4 today.

 So at the end of the season when teams like Farmington, Wilton-Lyndeborough and Portsmouth Christian are ranked significantly lower than  Profile, Lisbon and Colebrook you have to take the schedule into account and the quality of wins.

 For now it will be about taking care of business against the schedule laid out in front of them but chances are one of those three teams; Profile, Colebrook and Lisbon, is going to be hosting a first round tournament game.

 

  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 Colebrook head coach Buddy Trask and Bedford head coach Mark Elmendorf.

 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).