This is an annual column where we stop to take a look around each of the four divisions at the midway point of the season. The purpose is to analyze the first half of the season to tell you where the teams stand today and where they are likely headed over the second half of the season.

 As always I pick the two teams most likely to meet in the championship game, your most likely final four teams, hand out mid-season all-state picks as well as our mid-season player & coach of the year.

 First I’d like to thank each of our Gold Level Coaches/Programs who support our 7-person team: Nate Stanton of Londonderry, Marty Edwards of Alvirne, Rob McLaughlin of Salem, Jeff Holmes of Exeter, Matt Fennessy of Dover, Jay McKenna of Winnacunnet, John Mulvey of Portsmouth, Mark Elmendorf of Bedford & Ryan Cowette of Goffstown.

 Every Gold Level Member has access to every single full game video we produce.

 Today’s column is sponsored by our longtime partners at Merrimack Valley Sports, the official sponsor of Salem high school coverage on NHsportspage.

 A reminder that we will be naming the 12-player NHsportspage senior select team roster in Thursday’s column.

 The NHsportspage senior & underclassman select teams will be playing BABC out of Boston in a doubleheader on Saturday, March 30th. Rob McLaughlin of Salem is the head coach of the senior team, Nate Stanton of Londonderry is his assistant coach.

 

 If forced to pick the two teams that will meet in the final: Winnacunnet vs. Exeter

 I’ve gone with the same teams I had ranked #1 and #2 previews in all four snapshots, either because they haven’t proven me wrong yet or I’m an out of control egomaniac and I haven’t recognized it yet.

 We will get to the two seacoast arch-rivals, who ‘The Franchise’ Jennifer Chick-Ruth & I will be covering Friday night when they square off in Exeter but first let’s take a look around the most interesting division in the state.

 

The contenders:

 Salem has been as impressive as any team in the division. They play as hard as any team I’ve seen (they are dialed in with their coach Rob McLaughlin) and they have very good balance on the floor as far as their guards on the perimeter and bigs in the paint.

 Zack Caraballo & Trevor DeMinico have scored 115 and 114 points respectively through 9 games, so that’s a balance that’s almost impossible to duplicate. Kyle Poulin has a terrific feel offensively around the basket & both Ben Laycock and Jared Burns have been big contributors defensively.

 Salem is the best defensive team in the state, as they proved again by holding Exeter to 43 points in their showdown last week. They also have a defense that will turn you over, and the guards to turn those steals into transition points.

 The schedule for the second half makes a Top 4 seed a reality. The Blue Devils face only two teams that are plus .500 today (Concord & Londonderry) the rest of the way and will play four straight home games in February.

 Nashua North has been the surprise team, jumping out to a 7-2 start with a team led by underclassman

 We knew Steve Lane’s team was coming but no one saw 7-2 coming. Brendan Choate (16.7 ppg.), Curtis Harris (12.3) and Nate Kane (11.6) have all taken turns being the best player on the floor for the Titans, who have proven they can win games late. Which is not easy for a young team to do in this division.

 North has played five of their first eight games at home, picking up good road wins over Alvirne, Goffstown (Ryan Cowette is doing a terrific job in Year 1) and Bishop Guertin (who have lost so many games late that I’d believe it if they found out they’ve been practicing on ancient burial grounds).

 The second half schedule gets tougher, with games against the seacoast teams (they have to play Spaulding, Winnacunnet & Portsmouth on the road) plus Londonderry & Exeter at home. I’m not expecting them to keep up their pace but right now this team is playing for a home game in Round 1.

 Spaulding has been impressive, they don’t wow you when you see them (and we’ve covered them three times already) and the short-comings are easy to find but they play well together.

 First, of all, they defend the ball as well as anyone. Keagan Calero (sporting a sore ankle this week) & Shane Hudson are excellent defenders and Cade Connelly is very smart, always being where he needs to be on both ends of the floor.

 They are a team that is going to beat you in the high 40’s/low 50’s and they have been able to dictate the pace of most of the games they’ve played. Even slowing teams like Exeter, Portsmouth and Manchester Central down when they want to play fast.

 When Arie Breakfield takes a jumper I immediately wonder who is going to rebound, as every other starter is under 6 feet, but Ryan Bernier has really helped them as a big off the bench and Calero & Connelly both rebound really well for guards.

 This is a team that should be pushing for a Top 4 seed and possibly a pair of home playoff games come March. I can’t remember the last time a team beat Spaulding at the Rochester Rec. Center in the playoffs.

 President Cronin’s team are never an easy out when it gets to the one & done stage.

 Portsmouth played the first two games of the season without Alex Tavares (22.6) and has already faced Exeter, Winnacunnet, Salem & Spaulding. That tells you not to give too much weight to their 5-4 start.

 The Clippers have surrounded Tavares & Cal Hewitt with a rotation of players that each brings something to the table. Tommy Degnan, Zach Paradis, Coleman Brewster, Jacob Boutin & Kevin Cummings are running John Mulvey’s offense which happens to look exactly like Jim Mulvey’s offense.

 This is a team that can be held in the ’40s, unlike recent championship teams and they are more a perimeter team offensively than one that attacks the basket but the players know their roles and John Mulvey is doing a very good job of putting his players in the best position to succeed.

 Portsmouth doesn’t play a team with a winning record until they face Nashua North & Alvirne in back to back home games on February 20th & 22nd. Meaning the Clippers still have designs on a top 4 seed and the road to getting there will be easier than what they faced in their first nine games.

 The two-time defending champs remain the last team you want to see in the quarterfinals.

 

 The favorites

 Exeter has not lost a game since a scrimmage against Central Catholic (MA) back in December.

 Head coach Jeff Holmes scrapped the 5 in, 5 out substitutions and the result is his core group of Josh Morissette, Kevin Henry, Ryan Grijalva, Cam Clark, Max Rose & Ethan Imbimbo getting more minutes.

 The Blue Hawks still run great sets but they’ve also shown an ability to freelance & run a motion offense and be very effective. In the fourth quarter at Portsmouth Holmes had his team create their offense and it was a move that ultimately won them the game.

 The Blue Hawks lack the size of teams like Merrimack & Winnacunnet but Henry & Morissette rebound very well for their position and it hasn’t cost them in the first half of the season.

 The defense is better than it was a year ago when they couldn’t get a stop against Dover at UNH and ultimately lost a shootout in the semifinals.

 I can tell you there are still people in the division that wonder if they’ll share the ball in crunch time once we get to March?

 So far it has not been an issue, and when this group plays without worrying about where the shots are coming from they are the best offense in the state.

 Winnacunnet has taken care of business over the first half of the season and looks the part of our pre-season #1.

 Ben Allen has been as good as any player in the state and Jack Schaake has the ability to take over games late. The concern with Schaake is always foul trouble. Because of his size & strength, he gets called for fouls he probably didn’t commit, but he also has a bad habit of reaching and that accumulates fouls.

 Schaake’s second foul last Friday night against Dover was a reach in 18 feet from the basket, and at 6’5 there’s no reason for him to be reaching that far out on the perimeter.

 The result of the foul was Schaake sitting for the last 5 minutes of the half, and when the Warriors get into big games they can’t afford their all-state center to be a spectator.

 Joe LaRosa has been a terrific glue guy for Jay Mckenna’s team while Jordan Fuller & Connor Considine have filled key roles. Fuller is very good defensively and Considine allows Allen to play off the ball at times.

 The X-factor is Nick Hepburn, who scored 7 points against Dover in his first game action in a month. At 6’4 Hepburn is a nightmare match-up because, with the 6’4 Allen and 6’5 Schaake needing to be accounted for, Hepburn is going to be a mismatch problem for most teams on many nights.

 What impressed me about Mckenna’s team against Dover was that they weren’t settling for three-pointers. They tested Dover to see if the Green Wave could stop them from attacking the rim and when they couldn’t Winnacunnet went to the rim over & over again to the tune of a 24 point lead at one point.

 We’ll breakdown  Friday’s match-up (we are covering not only the boys game but the girls game as well) in the Thursday Thoughts but two months into the season and the top two teams from the pre-season haven’t been beaten yet.

 So we’ll leave them right where they started..

 

 The verdict is still out on: Londonderry (Can’t say enough good things about the job Nate Stanton is doing with a young group. This is a team expected to compete for a spot at UNH the next two seasons and they’re arriving a bit early. Second half schedule includes Exeter, Nashua North & Winnacunnet)……..Dover (When they get scoring from someone other than Ty Vitko they can hang offensively with any team they face. The biggest issue though for Matt Fennessey’s team is protecting the paint. They haven’t found anyone to replace John Cantwell down low and teams are taking advantage of it)………..Concord (Scott Lampron has been terrific and the Dave Chase rebuild is right on schedule. They lucked out in not having to play Winnacunnet, Exeter or Portsmouth so expect them to be a Top 8 seed)……..Keene (Terrific job by Kevin Ritter & Co., a lot of people want to Tate Matte, Noah Timmer & the Blackbirds in the tourney, the two games against Concord will be big for their chances)…….Alvirne (If Nashua North has been the happy surprise of the first half Alvirne has been on the other end. Was the blowout win over Bedford a glimpse of what could have been or a sign that they are turning it around? Because this could be a terrifying team come March)…….Bedford (something tells me Justin O’Neil is about to have a big second half for the Bulldogs….I just have a feeling)…Nashua South (I’ve had three different coaches tell me what a great job Nate Mazerolle is doing this season)

 

Your lower seeded team that will be a nightmare in Round 1: Manchester Central

 Central plays at a fast tempo, they play hard for Sudi Lett and in Jesus Milan, Daniel Infante & Ding Nyiang they have three players that can be the best players on the floor for stretches of a playoff game.

 The Little Green has also gotten through the toughest part of their schedule. Central could easily end up in the Top 8 by the end of the regular season.

 Wherever they end up, they will be a tough out.

 

 Player of the year at the mid-point: Arie Breakfield of Spaulding

 The pre-season pick remains in the top spot. He’s been terrific for the Red Raiders.

 Runner-up: Alex Tavares of Portsmouth

 

 Coach of the Year at the mid-point:  Nate Stanton of Londonderry

 There have been quite a few impressive coaching jobs in Division I but Stanton gets the nod for leading his young group to a 6-2 start.

 Runners-up: Steve Lane of Nashua North and Kevin Ritter of Keene

 

 First Team All-State (First half of the season)

 Arie Breakfield of Spaulding

 Alex Tavares of Portsmouth

 Ty Vitko of Dover

 Ben Allen of Winnacunnet

 Josh Morissette of Exeter

 

 With apologies to: Jack Schaake of Winnacunnet, Ethan May of Londonderry, Zack Caraballo, Kyle Poulin & Trevor Deminico of Salem, Brendan Choate & Curtis Harris of Nashua North, Athiei Bol of Trinity, Keagan Calero of Spaulding, Cal Hewitt of Portsmouth, Kevin Henry & Ryan Grijalva of Exeter, Tate Matte of Keene, Ding Nyiang of Manchester Central,  Ryan Weston of Alvirne and Jay Reynolds of Pinkerton