Rivalry Week is the theme of the Thursday Thoughts. Today we’ll preview seven games from around the state being played Thursday, Friday and even Saturday afternoon.

 Jennifer Chick-Ruth & I will be covering a girls/boys doubleheader on Friday night when Exeter hosts Winnacunnet in front of what promises to be a packed house.

 Then on Saturday afternoon Austin Grass makes his maiden voyage to the North Country with me when for the 7th consecutive year we bring you coverage of Colebrook vs. Groveton.

 All the highlights and the post-game interview with each of the three winning teams.

 Before we get to the preview we want to name the 12-player roster for the NHsportspage Senior Select Team that will be playing BABC out of Boston on Saturday, March 30th.

 This will be a great event covered by us, with Justin McIsaac as the PA announcer and will feature the NHsportspage Senior select team and the underclassman select team competing against one of the best programs in the country.

 

 NHsportspage Senior Select Team (names are in alphabetical order)

 

 Head coach: Rob McLaughlin of Salem

 Asst.  Coach: Nate Stanton of Londonderry

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 Ben Allen of Winnacunnet

 Seth Balderrama of Berlin

 Arie Breakfield of Spaulding

 Zach Caraballo of Salem

 Simon Cote of Newmarket

 Noah Cummings of Pembroke Academy

 Evan Gray of Somersworth

 Kevin Henry of Exeter

 Kyle Landrigan of Oyster River

 Jack Schaake of Winnacunnet

 Alex Tavares of Portsmouth

 Ty Vitko of Dover

 

 Look for a lot more information on this event as well as the underclassman roster in the coming weeks.

 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

Winnacunnet (8-1) at Exeter (8-0)

Exeter Team Page

Winnacunnet Team Page

 This one has replaced Trinity/Manchester Central as the game we most look forward to in Division I. The student sections will be out in full force (who could forget the Winnacunnet holding signs last year that read ‘Exeter kids eat Tide Pods’) and both teams are championship or bust in 2019.

 The Warriors lost their first game of the season at Salem on Tuesday night 41-35. It wasn’t that they lost; it was how they lost that stood out. Salem packed in their man to man defense in the last 5 minutes and dared anyone but Ben Allen to hit a 3-pointer.

 It illustrated a possible Achilles Heel for Winnacunnet and that’s the lack of outside shooting. Salem had five players with at least a foot in the paint late in the game and the result was too much traffic for all-state center Jack Schaake to get the ball.

 Exeter might employ a similar strategy, as they will struggle to match-up with the size of Jay McKenna’s team.  Exeter will look to isolate players like Josh Morissette, Ryan Grijalva & Kevin Henry and use their quickness as the game’s deciding factor.

 Exeter is the better shooting team. Winnacunnet is better at attacking the rim and the glass. 6’4 Nick Hepburn, who I identified as an x-factor in yesterdays mid-season column, didn’t play at Salem on Tuesday night after returning against Dover last Friday night.

 Winnacunnet will need all hands on deck if they are walking out of Exeter with a win tomorrow night.

 

Spaulding (7-2) at Dover (4-6)

Dover Team Page

Spaulding Team Page

 It’s getting late early for Dover and that makes this a crucial game on Friday night (you can listen to Justin McIsaac call this game live on MOSN right on our website).

 We’ve gone over Dover’s issues both in finding a second scorer and protecting the paint. The good news; Spaulding isn’t a team that will beat you in a shootout and they are a team that has to rebound as a team as well.

 In other words, they’re not going to overwhelm Dover down low the way Winnacunnet did.

 If Keagan Calero is healthy, he turned his ankle up at Keene last week, I’d expect him or Shane Hudson to get the assignment on Division I scoring leader Ty Vitko (by the way…quick public services announcement: I’ve heard parents and coaches refer to this player or that player as the ‘best scorer in the state’. The best scorer in the state is either Ty Vitko or Alex Tavares. End of story. End of PSA).

 Matt Fennessy’s team plays Spaulding, Concord, Londonderry and Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde (Bishop Guertin) in their next four games.

 They need to start walking away with W’s or they are in jeopardy of not being invited to the dance in March.

 

 Division II

 Laconia (3-7) at Con Val (8-1)

 Laconia Team Page

 Con Val Team Page

 It’s been a rough ride in Division II for the Sachems. They have gone 2-7 since a season-opening win over Stevens (a fellow Division II newbie) and one of those wins was over Division III Gilford.

 An injury early in the season to Ryan Paiva has hurt but the Sachems are giving up 60 points a game against Division II teams since the opener.

 Con Val is not going to help that average. Leo Gershgorin’s team will press you full court and try to get their playmakers moving to the basket. The Cougars feed off the energy of their bench and on any given night it could be Mather Kipka (some of the best footwork in the state), Connor Buffum, Ben Henry, Max Richard or Del Bonsu-Anane leading the way.

 The Sachems want to make a playoff push if they are going to do that the time is now. After Con Val, they face Plymouth (1-7), Division III Belmont and Coe-Brown (5-4).

 That stretch of games will indicate whether Laconia can advance to the post-season in their first season back in Division II.

 

Division III

Conant (9-2) at Somersworth (9-2)

Conant Team Page

Somersworth Team Page

 Two of the best teams in Division III square off in a game that will be about defense.

 Conant is going to win games like this with their defense, not to say they don’t have the offense because they do. Eric Saucier though focuses on being the best man to man defense in the division and a game like this will come down to who can & can’t make fourth-quarter stops.

 The Hilltoppers are finally fully healthy with the return of players like Luke Monesmith. They went into the Hopkinton game feeling like the defending champs weren’t being given enough attention and walked away with a resounding 68-39 win.

 The recent run has also highlighted the play of all-state forward Evan Gray and in particular how his unselfishness has improved the team.

 Gray went into his senior year knowing that if he averaged about 22 points a game he would reach 1,000 career points by the end of the season.

 In a discussion with head coach Rob Fauci, the Hilltoppers captain decided that it was more important to build a better team for a possible title defense in March. In doing that Gray decided to sacrifice shots/points for getting teammates like Jacob Hamilton and Jeremy Levesque more looks, knowing he was going to need his teammates in March if there was any chance for Somersworth to repeat.

 Gray scored 24 points in a loss to Winnacunnet in the Oyster River Holiday Tournament and made it look easy at times against one of the best teams in the state. Proving again that scoring 25 a game would not be difficult for him to do, but he would be taking away from the growth of his teammates.

 The results find Evan Gray ranked 10th in scoring in Division III and his team sitting only a ½ game out of the top seed as we head to February.  Gray’s head coach Rob Fauci can’t say enough good things about the attitude and the unselfishness his best player has shown

 Do you think Evan Gray regrets his decision to make his teammates better at the sacrifice of his own point total?

 Not for one second, and that’s why the defending champs will be one of the last teams standing again in March.

 

 Inter-Lakes (5-5) at White Mountains (9-3)

 White Mountains Team Page

 Inter-Lakes Team Page

  If Mike Curtis’s Spartans are going to be Top 4 seed in the tournament, meaning one or possibly two teams are taking a bus ride all the way to Whitefield, the games against Mike Rathgeber’s Lakers are going to the deciding factors.

 The Spartans have won 7 games in a row and look like they are peaking at the right time.

 Buddy Lachance is becoming one of the best guards in the division, Jack Curtis is asserting himself as a scorer again, Connor Bosse fills your glue-guy role in handling the ball & playing good defense, Griffin Crane gives them one of the best athletes on the floor and a very good rebounder at forward, Hunter MacLeod is giving his team good production off the bench and Zeke Pribbenow has been a double/double machine for the past month.

 The Lakers’ Eli Swanson is playing as well as anyone in the division and the emergence of Tae Miller has taken a lot of the pressure off of the all-state forwards shoulders. Mike Rathgeber feels like his team let a couple of games slip away in December and that they are due for an upset win.

 This game would serve as that upset and hurt the Spartans’ chances of staying at home for the first two rounds of the tournament.

 

 Division IV

 Epping (11-1) at Newmarket (9-1)

 Epping Team Page

 Newmarket Team Page

 Nick Fiset’s Epping Blue Devils are tired of hearing that Division IV is a two-team race and their chance to prove it was never true comes tomorrow night.

 Epping has had a couple of close calls along the way but hasn’t dropped a game since losing at home to the Mules 57-45 back on December 20th in a game we covered.

 In that game, Newmarket head coach Jamie Hayes played 11 players in the first half. Early foul trouble to Simon Cote & Logan Willey played a part in that decision but I don’t think he can do it again tomorrow night.

 Newmarket has a promising group of sophomores but in a game against either Epping or Littleton, you make sure Cote, Willey, Will Chase & Jared Woodman are playing major minutes.

 Newmarket will rotate Allen Phoubaykham, Alex Senesombath and several other players on all-state point guard Hunter Bullock in an effort to wear him down and annoy him over four quarters. Whichever comes first.

 Epping needs to get perimeter scoring from Adam LePage & Shawn Hill but even more importantly, they have to be able to stop Willey, Woodman, and Owen Tower (who was very good in the first meeting) in the paint.

 A lot of that responsibility will fall on junior Peyton Rivers who has started to come on of late and has the ability to pull down 15 rebounds on Friday night.

 Epping thinks that they are every bit as good as Newmarket & Littleton.

 They get their second chance to prove it tomorrow night.

 

 Colebrook (7-4) at Groveton (8-5)

 Groveton Team Page

 Colebrook Team Page

 My favorite rivalry in the state finds two teams badly in need of a win.

 Groveton has lost two in a row to Littleton & White Mountains. There’s certainly no shame in that but in the Littleton game Groveton didn’t even compete……and that’s rarely been the case with Groveton basketball.

 Colebrook won the first meeting between the two teams back on January 4th, 72-70 as the Mohawks turned the Eagles over 31 times and got a big performance out of forward Les Lord.

 This time Groveton gets the arch-rivals on their home floor, with an improved Matt St Cyr leading the backcourt and the all-state duo of Josh Wheelock & Gavin Simpson in the frontcourt.

 Mark Collins’ team needs a win to move towards a Top 8 seed or higher while Buddy Trask’s team could end up as high as #6 if they can pull off the season sweep.

isten LIVE to the New Hampshire High School Hoop Show Saturday morning from 9 to 10 am with Pete Tarrier & I. We will re-cap every single game from the Friday night schedule and our guests will be Inter-Lakes coach Mike Rathgeber & Belmont coach Jim Cilley.

 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.