We are nearing the half-way point of the Division III & IV season (Trinity, after playing their home opener on Tuesday night, just spit out their coffee) which means next week will be our annual Mid-Season snapshot columns for both divisions.
I’ll pick the two teams I see meeting in the finals, all-state picks at the mid-way point as well as the player & coach of the year to this point of the season.
Before we get to the 8 games we’ll preview this week we have a major announcement to get to first.
On March 30th at a college venue to be named soon..two NHsportspage select teams of New Hampshire high school players will be playing in games against two BABC teams from Leo Papile’s storied program out of Boston.
We will have a 12 player NHsportspage team of underclassman playing in the first game against BABC’s sophomore team in a game that will consist of two 20-minute halves, on a college floor with 3 officials.
Conant’s Eric Saucier will be the underclassman select team head coach and will be assisted by Bishop Guertin head coach Matt Regan.
We will be reaching out to players to invite them to play on the team in the coming weeks but the practice schedule will be the week of Monday, March 25th leading up to the game on Saturday afternoon March 30th, which is exactly one week after the championship games at UNH.
The NHsportspage senior select team will be coached by Rob McLaughlin of Salem and his assistant coach will be Nate Stanton of Londonderry.
We will be reaching out to 12 players to invite them to play on that team in the coming weeks as well. Same game set-up and same practice schedule.
This is an event Maine held last year where over 1,000 fans attended the games so we hope this will be an annual game of our best against one of the best & most respected AAU programs in the country. It’s a perfect way to wrap-up the season.
We will be pushing back the start date of the seacoast tournament in Portsmouth so expect that tourney to begin (and The reign of the Fighting McIsaacs to hopefully end..) the first week of April.
We will have a ton of announcements about the NHsportspage/BABC games including the naming of the rosters, interviews and Leo Papile joining Pete & I on our radio show in the next two months.
Today’s column is sponsored by our longest running partner (over 10 years of supporting high school sports coverage in New Hampshire) Sentinel Title Services in Rye, NH.
Mention NHSportspage or this ad when scheduling your closing and receive a $100 off your Settlement Fee!
Division I
Keene (5-1) at Winnacunnet (6-0)
The early surprise in Division I faces its biggest test of the season tomorrow night in Hampton.
Kevin Ritter’s Blackbirds haven’t faced the toughest part of their schedule yet but they’ve earned good wins over Bedford & Bishop Guertin and will no doubt have the attention of Jay McKenna & his crew.
Keene is winning with balanced scoring and defense, or more accurately, defenses, which have kept their opponents off balance. Ritter will give you enough different looks to where you never can get completely comfortable on offense. Mixing in 1-2-2 and 2-2-1 zones with run & jump full-court pressure.
By the time your team gets a sense of where the points of attack are in the defense, they’ve switched it up and gone to a different look.
Sophomore Tate Matte has played very well at the point while Noah Timmer (12.6 ppg) is giving them production on the perimeter and Alex Opsahl (10.0) is scoring in the post. Keene makes open shots and because they are balanced & unselfish, they’ve been getting a lot of them lately.
Opsahl & Matte have been very good running the high pick & low with the big man able to pop out for a jumper or roll to the basket and seal his man in the post. Ritter runs good sets on offense and this is a group he has had for a few years.
In Winnacunnet they’ll face the biggest team in the division and Opsahl will have to deal with 6’5 center Jack Schaake (15.3) on the low block.
McKenna’s team has been without 6’4 forward Nick Hepburn for the past two weeks but has remained undefeated in his absence.
Londonderry (4-2) at Bedford (4-2)
Nate Stanton brings his Lancers to Bedford coming off of a very good win over Alvirne on Tuesday night in which Ethan May (27 points) nearly outscored the Broncos (31 points) by himself.
Londonderry has changed their style of play to fit their young nucleus and against Alvirne they took away transition opportunities and made the Broncos battle them in the half court.
Bedford Head coach Mark Elmendorf would be just fine with that arrangement tomorrow night. The Bulldogs are very physical (there are a lot of football players out on the floor this winter) and with Thomas Morgan running the offense they’ve been able to pull out close wins late over Nashua South, Windham & Bishop Guertin.
Londonderry is still looking for that consistent second scorer. It may be Cole Keegan (held scoreless against Alvirne) or it may be one of their talented sophomores stepping up. Until then they are leaning heavily on the 6’4 May, who has been playing at an all-state level since he returned to the team after their second game.
Winner of this one will have the rest of the division muttering late Friday night, ‘Wow….they’re 5-2…’
Division II
Pembroke Academy (6-1) at Souhegan (6-1)
This is the perfect game at the perfect time for Peter Pierce’s Souhegan Sabers. They’ve gotten off to a very good start and have picked up two impressive wins of late (over Coe-Brown in a game we covered and Hollis-Brookline on Tuesday). Now it’s time to play a title-or-bust team and see how you compete against one of the best teams in Division II.
Pembroke was impressive against Merrimack Valley in a game Jen & I covered.
The Spartans have a couple of different wing players who can hurt you and when Shea Shackford squared up & got clean looks he knocked down shots. Noah Cummings sacrificed his scoring for the night to direct traffic and there are few if any point guards in the state as good at handling pressure and navigating zones. Rich Otis had Pembroke run either Sean Menard or Mike Pittman on the baseline and the results were good looks against MV’s zone.
What impressed me most about the Sabers last Friday night against Coe-Brown is that they didn’t panic when they got down 11-2 on the road. Peter Pierce called a good timeout and they changed the way they attacked the Coe-Brown zone.
Jeff Kiesewetter is not a point guard who always has to have the ball in his hands (that’s a good thing) and plays with a lot of confidence. He proved he could knockdown corner 3’s against the Bears and that changed the way Dave Smith’s team defended the Sabers.
Matt McCool will likely be guarded by center Jack Lehoullier. The Pembroke big man did a very good job on Merrimack Valley’s Kyle Dube on Tuesday night but McCool will pull him away from the basket more than Dube did. That will be a match-up to watch.
Pierce is getting scoring production out of Jeff Boehm (he’s very good when he gets a step on his way to the rim) and the player that really stood out to me was Khaled Nazeer, who made a lot of big plays in the fourth quarter on both ends of the floor and does whatever you need from him to win.
Pembroke has proven themselves on the big stage, this game lets us know where Souhegan stands as far as teams that can get to Durham in March.
Merrimack Valley (6-2) at Lebanon (4-2)
Two good teams with similar flaws.
Scoring.
The question is will they be fatal flaws come March?
For Lebanon, it proved to be one last March when they were bounced as a 2 seed (to be fair Lebanon never felt like a 2-seed last season) by John Stark in a game that never got into the ’40s.
Dave Faucher’s Raiders have begun to come around and their getting scoring every night from Jon Willeman (15.3) and Wade Rainey (14.3).
That’s what they need, two players they can rely on every night to get them 15 points. Faucher runs such good stuff on offense that the players on the floor are going to see good looks, but you need one or two players to lean on when no one is hitting shots (the way Londonderry did on Tuesday night with Ethan May).
If they’ve found those two players it gives Lebanon a dynamic they didn’t have a year ago.
Merrimack Valley struggled to get in the ’30s on Tuesday night against Pembroke and if it wasn’t for Dillon McCarthy (20 points) it would have been much worse.
Tim Mucher’s team has the players to get back to Durham and the go-to guy to lead them, in Kyle Dube. The issue for MV was 1) they turned the ball over a ton and often they were unforced errors and 2) they didn’t get any offense out of their defense. In other words, they didn’t force Pembroke to turn it over.
Should be a very good one up in Lebanon tomorrow night.
Division III
St Thomas (5-1) at Conant (6-2)
The Saints picked up a pair of good road wins to open the season over Inter-Lakes & Somersworth but this would be a statement win for Sean Murphy’s team.
Eric Saucier’s Orioles have lost their two games by a total of 6 points and led in both games late. That experience should help them down the stretch and in St Thomas they play a team with size & speed.
Andrew Cavanaugh (20.0) is a match-up problem for a Conant team that isn’t very big. Look for the Orioles to be physical with Cavanaugh to try and persuade him to take his game to the perimeter.
Shawn DeKorne likely will pay attention to where Peyton Springfield (20.8) is at all times and something else to look for is how St Thomas, and namely point guard Diego Garcia, handles the pressure defense coming his way.
Berlin (6-3) at Gilford (2-4)
As the saying goes, ‘It’s getting late early’ for my Alma Mater.
Gilford was blown out by Somersworth on Tuesday night, trailing 31-13 at halftime. Now with Berlin coming in, they have no margin of error if they still have hopes for a Top 8 seed and a home playoff game.
The Golden Eagles schedule is as tough as any in Division III and they are in the middle of a brutal stretch. After Berlin, they face St Thomas, at Campbell, Division II Laconia, Mascenic Regional, Winnisquam (don’t sleep on Kevin Dame’s team) and finally a trip to Mascoma, one of the toughest places to play in the division.
The kind of pressure defense Campbell & Mascoma are going to bring looks lethal to this Gilford team right now. Their issue is still point guard play (my man Korey Weston is very good but he is not a point guard and shouldn’t be advertised as one) and turning the ball over. Somersworth and Conant both went into their games against Gilford daring them to score on them in transition and they couldn’t do it.
When I told Justin McIsaac on our weekly podcast there was a road to Gilford ending up 9-9 some people took that as a shot at my alma mater. So let’s break it down like a fraction.
Look at that schedule and then add Hopkinton & Belmont at home and a trip way up north to White Mountains and explain to me how they are going 8-4 the rest of the way?
The good news for Friday night is Berlin isn’t going to pressure Gilford, and they don’t have the size to match up with Greg Madore (15.8 and finally healthy) and Adrian Siravo (13.2 and back after missing three games due to injury).
What they are is a very smart team that will defend in the half court. Sinciere Davis has been really good the last month or so and Seth Balderrama has been player of the year worthy. They know how to win close games and Balderrama is maybe the best closer in the division.
A must win game in mid-January? If there is such a thing, this serves as one for Gilford.
Division IV
Sunapee (6-1) at Groveton (6-3)
This is the score to watch tomorrow night as Tim Putchler and the Lakers head up north to take on Mark Collins and the Eagles.
Groveton’s size down low, with Jordan Wheelock & Gavin Simpson, is going to be tough for Sunapee to match up with. The Lakers don’t have a starter over 6 feet and this Groveton team is pretty tough in the paint. Wheelock is very comfortable operating from the high post and Simpson has a legitimate back to the basket game.
Sophomore Matt St Cyr has been playing very well of late for Groveton and gets a good match-up against a solid Sunapee backcourt.
On Tuesday night Jamie Hayes had his Newmarket team dial up the pressure defense and the results were very good for the road team. Sunapee struggled with early turnovers and never was really in the game.
Look for Collins to dial up similar pressure as well with his zone press. The Eagles already have three losses with two games against Littleton and one more against White Mountains still on the schedule. That makes this one a must-have at home.
Sunapee has been led by Brady Grzanna (10.1) and Jordan Chappell (13.3). They’ll face Derryfield next Thursday night at home to end a 3-game stretch we said would tell us where they stand in the Division IV power rankings.
The loss to Newmarket was expected, now it’s about how they do against two teams that are competing with them for a Top 6 seed in the tournament.
Littleton (9-0) at Derryfield (5-2)
Coaches around the division keep waiting for Derryfield to pop out of a phone booth like Superman and return to their rightful place near the top of the Division IV standings, but it isn’t happening.
Max Byron (19.1) has been as good as advertised but a second scorer hasn’t emerged for The Cougars. Colin McCaigue has been good at the point guard spot but he doesn’t have the weapons to get the ball to that Rob Bradley coached teams have had in the past.
Tomorrow night McCaigue is going to have to navigate through Littleton’s pressure defense with Danny Kubkowski out in front. They’ll look to get the ball up the floor quickly enough to get Byron open looks on the wing or 6’5 center Max Karpawich one on one in the post.
Trevor Howard’s team doesn’t have a lot of size but they make up for it by making it very difficult for you to get the ball down low. That will be the task in front of Derryfield tomorrow night.
Rob Bradley always has his team playing its best as the season goes along and the last time they didn’t host a quarterfinal game George W Bush was President, but this year has been different.
Derryfield will see how far the gap is between themselves and the top in this one.
Listen LIVE to the New Hampshire High School Hoop Show Saturday morning from 9 to 10 am when Epping head coach Nick Fiset sits in for Pete Tarrier this week. We will re-cap every single game from the Friday night schedule. Our guest on Saturday will be Winnacunnet Head Coach Jay McKenna.
You can listen by clicking the listen live link right on our homepage or on 99.9 FM & 1370 WFEA radio in the Manchester area Saturday morning.
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