The Merrimack Valley Sports Division III Quarterfinal Preview
2016-03-06
The Hopkinton defense will look to stop Winnisquam tonight
By Dave Haley
Only eight teams remain in the biggest division in the state and Saturday we will be out at two of the Division III quarterfinal games with full coverage.
Pete Tarrier and The Great Jon Kesty will be in Pelham when the defending champions take on Mascenic Regional. Jennifer Chick and I will be back at Kearsarge Regional when Nate Camp’s team takes on Franklin for a trip to the Final Four.
When you register with NHsportspage for $50 you will get full, uninterrupted access through next (2017) season and you will also be getting our black NHsportspage game jerseys (pictured on our homepage) as well. Take care of your registration before the price triples after March 10th.
When you register just add your shirt size and we will mail the shirts out to you.
Register for full uninterrupted access today
(9) Mascenic Regional at (1) Pelham
Mascenic pulled off a HUGE first round upset when they went to Gilford and somehow beat the 8th seeded Golden Eagles.
Fine…it was a toss-up game and maybe not an upset at all. It’s always fun getting updates about your team going down from the AD of the school doing it. Sometimes technology isn’t as much fun as we make it out to be..
The Vikings, who dropped a regular season game to the Pythons 73-55, will be challenged to create good looks against the second best defense in Division III. Kyle Frank may be the best on the ball defender in the division and whether he is assigned to Brett Stauffeneker or Daimon Gibson the idea is to make Mascenic’s two headed attack singular. On the other end of the floor look for Jay Starr to mix up defenses and throw some box & one looks at Player of the Year Keith Brown.
Mascenic knows they cannot allow 73 points to Matt Regan’s team if they plan on pulling the major upset. The Vikings need to run everything through Stauffeneker & Gibson while being very patient with their offensive possessions. The way Pelham beats you is by turning 12-8 leads into 20-8 advantages by forcing turnovers and either scoring in transition or pushing the ball so quickly that you lose Brown on the floor. That usually is a story that ends with three points on the board. That is the task that stands in front of a Mascenic team making their second consecutive quarterfinal appearance.
Pete Tarrier and Jon Kesty will be bring you all the highlights and post-game celebrations...with the coverage of Mascenic brought to you by Salo Masonry of New Ipswich.
(5) Hopkinton at (4) Winnisquam
The image I have of Winnisquam head coach Kevin Dame after his team’s 41-39 ‘Did that game tying put back beat the clock or didn’t it?’ win over Bow was sitting somewhere alone looking like Tom Hanks at the end of ‘Captain Phillips’. Tired, shaken, beaten and unsure of how he was still alive.
This was no fluke. Bow is very well coached and they defend. It was Belmont, back on January 22nd and playing without Trevor Hunt that showed you the blueprint (in a 42-33 loss) of how to beat Winnisquam. Jim Cilley took all the air out of the tires and hung around for four quarters by slowing the game to a crawl, thus keeping Christian Serrano out of the open court. Slow the game down, make a small Winnisquam frontcourt finish in traffic and make Serrano direct traffic out top instead of flying up & down the floor to the tune of 25 points a game.
Expect Dave Chase to follow the same game plan, with a few wrinkles of his own tossed in. Keep the game in the 40’s and out execute Winnisquam in the final five minutes. Hopkinton is a very disciplined team, and this is the way they can get back to the Final Four.
How does Kevin Dame stop that from happening? By applying constant pressure (Hopkinton is down one of their best all-around players Henry Yianakopolos) and getting out in front early.
During the Woodsville/Wilton-Lyndeborough game I called Thursday night I talked over & over again about the patience of Woodsville on offense early on. Do you know why they were able to play that style? They were up eight points right off the bat. It’s very difficult to be patient when you are down four possessions, Winnisquam wants to get out of the gate quickly and make Hopkinton chase (horrible pun) all night long.
(6) Franklin at (3) Kearsarge Regional
Dana Bean’s block of Laconia’s Jordan McCrea coupled with the officials waving off Bow’s game tying basket kept the Lakes Region teams from having an absolutely horrific night.
No Lakes Region team has made the Division III semifinals since Gilford did back in 2008, a fact that coaches at Franklin, Gilford, Winnisquam, Inter-Lakes and Laconia react to like nails on a chalkboard whenever it gets mentioned, but it’s also true.
So on Thursday night when Gilford fell behind Mascenic 13-0 at home and never recovered and Inter-Lakes was upset by Stevens in the game no coach thought was much of an upset it suddenly came down to Franklin and Winnisquam, who with all due respect to Laconia, were the only two title game contenders left.
Sachems head coach Steve McDonough had a terrific game plan and got the huge night he needed out of Andre McNeil (25 points) to stay in it on the road until the final possession. When McNeil was well defended by Rich Otis’s team coming off a high ball screen it was McCrea who got the ball in the paint and the 6’7 Bean who spiked it out to midcourt. Franklin survived and now they return to face a Kearsarge team that beat them without their all-state forward Taylor Mattos three weeks ago.
Kearsarge vs Franklin
In the first meeting Franklin point guard Kenney Torres got in early foul trouble and was never a factor. Do not expect that to be the case tonight. Franklin had looks against Nate Camp’s 1-3-1 zone but either couldn't knock down shots or didn’t have the confidence to take them. Look for Matt Hennessy and Corey Nelson, who has very good scoring instincts, to play major roles. If either of them can become a major factor it not only takes the pressure off of Dana Bean and Torres but opens up space for them as well.
You want to slow Kearsarge down and not let all-state point guard Trent Noordsij operate in transition. With both Mattos brothers back in the lineup this is a team with a ton of size and great chemistry. Tommy Johnson has really stepped up as a scorer over the second half of the season and when it comes to a shootout the advantage is with Nate Camp’s team. They just have more weapons.
Jennifer Chick and I will be in the house tonight to bring you all the play by play and post-game celebration.
(10) Stevens at (2) Conant
Stevens is playing very good basketball and Parker Smith is developing into one of the best players in Division III.
The Cardinals were beaten soundly by Conant back on January 12th 71-42 and will have to prove they can defend at an elite level to stay in this basketball game. Eric Saucier’s team has never been big on style points, their mission is to defend you until you start making poor decisions out of a combination of frustration & exhaustion. C.J Bilodeau returned to the lineup with a broken bone in his nose while all-state forward Brandon Ford barely played in the win over Monadnock because of an illness. Both hope to be back to full speed by Saturday but more likely you will not see Ford back to 100% until the Final Four.
The player on this team who isn’t getting enough attention around the division is Simeon Hodgson. He’s been as good as any player on the team and its most consistent scorer. Hodgson and Josh DeGrenier will look to slow down Smith and the brothers Nick & Zach O’Brien. Conant’s MO is to break you down with their help defense and in their ability to force you to take tough shots. It’s not about who matches up with who it comes down to the defense they are in and the rotation at the back at that defense, anchored by Bilodeau.
Winner here heads to SNHU and the Final Four Wednesday night.
Pete Tarrier and The Great Jon Kesty will be in Pelham when the defending champions take on Mascenic Regional. Jennifer Chick and I will be back at Kearsarge Regional when Nate Camp’s team takes on Franklin for a trip to the Final Four.
When you register with NHsportspage for $50 you will get full, uninterrupted access through next (2017) season and you will also be getting our black NHsportspage game jerseys (pictured on our homepage) as well. Take care of your registration before the price triples after March 10th.
When you register just add your shirt size and we will mail the shirts out to you.
Register for full uninterrupted access today
(9) Mascenic Regional at (1) Pelham
Mascenic pulled off a HUGE first round upset when they went to Gilford and somehow beat the 8th seeded Golden Eagles.
Fine…it was a toss-up game and maybe not an upset at all. It’s always fun getting updates about your team going down from the AD of the school doing it. Sometimes technology isn’t as much fun as we make it out to be..
The Vikings, who dropped a regular season game to the Pythons 73-55, will be challenged to create good looks against the second best defense in Division III. Kyle Frank may be the best on the ball defender in the division and whether he is assigned to Brett Stauffeneker or Daimon Gibson the idea is to make Mascenic’s two headed attack singular. On the other end of the floor look for Jay Starr to mix up defenses and throw some box & one looks at Player of the Year Keith Brown.
Mascenic knows they cannot allow 73 points to Matt Regan’s team if they plan on pulling the major upset. The Vikings need to run everything through Stauffeneker & Gibson while being very patient with their offensive possessions. The way Pelham beats you is by turning 12-8 leads into 20-8 advantages by forcing turnovers and either scoring in transition or pushing the ball so quickly that you lose Brown on the floor. That usually is a story that ends with three points on the board. That is the task that stands in front of a Mascenic team making their second consecutive quarterfinal appearance.
Pete Tarrier and Jon Kesty will be bring you all the highlights and post-game celebrations...with the coverage of Mascenic brought to you by Salo Masonry of New Ipswich.
(5) Hopkinton at (4) Winnisquam
The image I have of Winnisquam head coach Kevin Dame after his team’s 41-39 ‘Did that game tying put back beat the clock or didn’t it?’ win over Bow was sitting somewhere alone looking like Tom Hanks at the end of ‘Captain Phillips’. Tired, shaken, beaten and unsure of how he was still alive.
This was no fluke. Bow is very well coached and they defend. It was Belmont, back on January 22nd and playing without Trevor Hunt that showed you the blueprint (in a 42-33 loss) of how to beat Winnisquam. Jim Cilley took all the air out of the tires and hung around for four quarters by slowing the game to a crawl, thus keeping Christian Serrano out of the open court. Slow the game down, make a small Winnisquam frontcourt finish in traffic and make Serrano direct traffic out top instead of flying up & down the floor to the tune of 25 points a game.
Expect Dave Chase to follow the same game plan, with a few wrinkles of his own tossed in. Keep the game in the 40’s and out execute Winnisquam in the final five minutes. Hopkinton is a very disciplined team, and this is the way they can get back to the Final Four.
How does Kevin Dame stop that from happening? By applying constant pressure (Hopkinton is down one of their best all-around players Henry Yianakopolos) and getting out in front early.
During the Woodsville/Wilton-Lyndeborough game I called Thursday night I talked over & over again about the patience of Woodsville on offense early on. Do you know why they were able to play that style? They were up eight points right off the bat. It’s very difficult to be patient when you are down four possessions, Winnisquam wants to get out of the gate quickly and make Hopkinton chase (horrible pun) all night long.
(6) Franklin at (3) Kearsarge Regional
Dana Bean’s block of Laconia’s Jordan McCrea coupled with the officials waving off Bow’s game tying basket kept the Lakes Region teams from having an absolutely horrific night.
No Lakes Region team has made the Division III semifinals since Gilford did back in 2008, a fact that coaches at Franklin, Gilford, Winnisquam, Inter-Lakes and Laconia react to like nails on a chalkboard whenever it gets mentioned, but it’s also true.
So on Thursday night when Gilford fell behind Mascenic 13-0 at home and never recovered and Inter-Lakes was upset by Stevens in the game no coach thought was much of an upset it suddenly came down to Franklin and Winnisquam, who with all due respect to Laconia, were the only two title game contenders left.
Sachems head coach Steve McDonough had a terrific game plan and got the huge night he needed out of Andre McNeil (25 points) to stay in it on the road until the final possession. When McNeil was well defended by Rich Otis’s team coming off a high ball screen it was McCrea who got the ball in the paint and the 6’7 Bean who spiked it out to midcourt. Franklin survived and now they return to face a Kearsarge team that beat them without their all-state forward Taylor Mattos three weeks ago.
Kearsarge vs Franklin
In the first meeting Franklin point guard Kenney Torres got in early foul trouble and was never a factor. Do not expect that to be the case tonight. Franklin had looks against Nate Camp’s 1-3-1 zone but either couldn't knock down shots or didn’t have the confidence to take them. Look for Matt Hennessy and Corey Nelson, who has very good scoring instincts, to play major roles. If either of them can become a major factor it not only takes the pressure off of Dana Bean and Torres but opens up space for them as well.
You want to slow Kearsarge down and not let all-state point guard Trent Noordsij operate in transition. With both Mattos brothers back in the lineup this is a team with a ton of size and great chemistry. Tommy Johnson has really stepped up as a scorer over the second half of the season and when it comes to a shootout the advantage is with Nate Camp’s team. They just have more weapons.
Jennifer Chick and I will be in the house tonight to bring you all the play by play and post-game celebration.
(10) Stevens at (2) Conant
Stevens is playing very good basketball and Parker Smith is developing into one of the best players in Division III.
The Cardinals were beaten soundly by Conant back on January 12th 71-42 and will have to prove they can defend at an elite level to stay in this basketball game. Eric Saucier’s team has never been big on style points, their mission is to defend you until you start making poor decisions out of a combination of frustration & exhaustion. C.J Bilodeau returned to the lineup with a broken bone in his nose while all-state forward Brandon Ford barely played in the win over Monadnock because of an illness. Both hope to be back to full speed by Saturday but more likely you will not see Ford back to 100% until the Final Four.
The player on this team who isn’t getting enough attention around the division is Simeon Hodgson. He’s been as good as any player on the team and its most consistent scorer. Hodgson and Josh DeGrenier will look to slow down Smith and the brothers Nick & Zach O’Brien. Conant’s MO is to break you down with their help defense and in their ability to force you to take tough shots. It’s not about who matches up with who it comes down to the defense they are in and the rotation at the back at that defense, anchored by Bilodeau.
Winner here heads to SNHU and the Final Four Wednesday night.