RallyNorth.net

DERRY, N.H. —  Pinkerton senior Zach Mathieu doubled his pleasure last night in the Class L quarterfinals.
Before the season, the 6-foot-7 center didn’t think either would happen, but he scored his 1,000th point while pacing the Astros past Manchester West, 63-58, and into Wednesday’s semifinals at UNH.
Pinkerton (16-4 in Class L), which will be making its first semifinal appearance since 1994, will face Dover at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Dover defeated Exeter, 63-60, last night.
“Early in the year, we didn’t think this was possible,” said Mathieu. “But we’ve become real close, everyone knows their role and the chemistry has been really good.
“The 1,000 points was a complete surprise. I didn’t even know I was close. I thought I had around 600.”
 Mathieu’s 1,000th point, which came deep in the fourth quarter, was certainly needed, and it came at the most opportune time.
After the Astros had taken a commanding 36-20 halftime lead, West roared back in the third quarter with a 20-1 run to take a brief lead and had the score tied, 52-52 ,with less than three minutes remaining to play in the game.
But Mathieu scored his 1,000th point on an offensive rebound put-back to make it 54-52 and, on the next time down the floor, put back another rebound off the glass to make it 57-52 with 1:41 remaining. From that point, the Astros used perfect foul shooting to seal the victory.
With junior guard Chad Park (11 points) leading the way with four free throws, the Astros were a perfect 10 for 10 from the line in the fourth quarter.
“I don’t know if we’ve been a good free throw shooting team during the year, but we are now,” quipped Pinkerton coach Peter Rosinski, whose club was 14 of 15 from the line overall. “We’ve worked hard at it.”
Prior to that point, it was largely the inside strength of the Astros, and in particular of Mathieu, that made the difference. He led all scorers with 23 points while hauling down 13 rebounds and blocking six shots, which gives him over 70 blocks for the season, according to Rosinski.
“Zach has just had a tremendous year and he keeps getting better the longer we play,” said Rosinski of the four-year mainstay. “We knew they’d come back, especially since we were in foul trouble.”
Indeed, 6-4 sophomore Alex Patrikis spent most of the second and third quarters on the bench and, when he came back in the fourth quarter to join Mathieu and 6-4 Ben Proulx (12 points, nine rebounds), Pinkerton was much more effective.
Patrikis scored five of his seven points in the final frame.
“We’re a different team with Alex out there,” said Rosinski.
And the Astros are now different from the previous 15 Pinkerton teams, including last year when it had a pair of fine guards in Colby Verge and Beau Cassidy.
“Our defensive intensity is better this year and we’re deeper,” said Rosinski, whose club was shocked in the first round last winter.
Also, as he is likely playing the last basketball of his career, Mathieu — who will be focusing on baseball at Franklin Pierce next year — is becoming a man among boys at just the right time.                                                                 

Pinkerton 53, Manchester West 58
Class L Quarterfinals
Manchester West (58): Martin 3-5-11. Abdalla 5-1-12, Valentin 6-3-17, Gonzalez 1-3-5, Asselin 3-4-11, Ilic 1-0-2. Totals 19-16-58
Pinkerton (63): Park 2-6-11, Colbert 2-2-6, Williams 2-0-4, Light 0-0-0, Curry 0-0-0, Patrikis 3-1-7, Proulx 6-0-12, Mathieu 9-5-23. Totals 24-14-63
3-pointers: MW — Abdalla, Valentin 2, Asselin; P — Park
Manchester West (13-7 Class L):    14  6 24 14 — 58
Pinkerton (16-4 Class L):    15 21  7 20 — 63

WORCESTER — The clock ticked just five times, but it seemed like an eternity for everyone in attendance.

“Those last five second felt like about an hour,” said Central Catholic forward Jimmy Zenevitch. “It was just unbelievable.”

WORCESTER — The similarities were uncanny.
At least at the start.
On the road to the Division 3 state championship game, both Eastern Mass. champion Pentucket and Western Mass. titlist Lee depended on athleticism, using the entire court and defending baseline to baseline — making every possession a 30-second battle.
But yesterday morning at DCU Center, the Sachems couldn’t spread the floor, couldn’t get cutters enough open space, and, save for a short stretch of the second quarter, couldn’t make enough baskets.
It added up to a 56-42 Lee win as the Wildcats (24-1), who are arguably the most dominant program in the state, earned their seventh state title since the modern state title format was adopted in 1975.
Despite seeing center Julia Warner sent to the bench in the first half with four fouls, Lee started winning the little battles. The press break came a little easier, point guard Tara Dooley made Pentucket stagnate offensively, and junior Alex Young (career game with 20 points, 19 rebounds) was the best rebounding guard the Sachems have seen this season or probably any season.
The Wildcats shook off a second-quarter, six-point deficit and scrapped their way a 56-42 victory that brought the Sachems’ ice-breaking run out of the TD Garden to a disappointing end.
“We knew we had to play well to win,” said Pentucket head coach John McNamara, “but we didn’t shoot well (12 for 66 overall, 4 for 26 from 3-point range), we didn’t shoot free throws well (14 for 24 compared to Lee’s 23 for 29) and we didn’t box out well.”
Young grabbed 12 of her 19 rebounds in the second half, six from the offensive glass. She also scored 11 of her game-high 20 points during this stretch and took any shot at precious momentum away from the Sachems (26-1).
“We worked on that all year,” Lee head coach Gary Wellington said. “We look to find an open zone and have a girl step through it. We wanted to stay active away from the ball and that helped (yesterday).”
Both teams suffered through massive bouts of nervousness to start, suffering a combined 21 first-quarter turnovers while Lee had already committed seven fouls.
Surviving the tough start, Pentucket pulled itself together behind point guard Erin McNamara as the senior banked in a nifty left-handed layup, sank two free throws, then kicked the ball to Sarah Higgins (eight points) and Ashley Viselli (team-high 19 points with 16 rebounds) for 3-pointers off clean looks. In three minutes, the locals went from down four to six up, 27-21, bringing over 1,000 green-clad fans to their feet. Pentucket finished with a 28-24 edge at the break.
“At halftime, I thought we were doing OK,” said the Sachem coach. “We were winning even though we played poorly. But they’re a good team and you’ve got to play well against good teams.”
It all changed in the second half. After a third quarter slugfest dominated by Viselli and Young featuring five lead changes, Lee started taking advantage of its opportunities.
The Wildcats hit 15 of 19 free throws over the final nine minutes while holding Pentucket to 2-for-20 shooting in the fourth. When leading scorer McNamara, who was held to four points, went to the bench with 50 seconds left with five fouls, the Wildcats’ hard battle was won.
“We’ve played team defense that way all year,” Wellington concluded. “We’ve boxed out, got second shots ... Pentucket played great defense but our kids wanted it more.”
“We never got into a flow,” Coach McNamara concluded. “We missed some shots early, and if we knocked them down like we did in the second quarter, it could have changed things a bit.
“But give all the credit to Lee for playing that style. We kind of figured they would, and we’ve seen teams do that to us, but we responded better then than we did (yesterday).”


Lee 56, Pentucket 42
Division 3 state final
at DCU Center, Worcester
Lee (56): Alex Young 7 6-7 20, Katie Eckert 3 6-9 15, Tara Dooley 3 3-5 9, Stephanie Young 2 4-4 8, Julia Warner 0 4-4 4, Casey Gaul 0 0-0 0, Megan Gaul 0 0-0 0, Eileen Dooley 0 0-0 0, Camryn Biasin 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 23-29 56
Pentucket (42): Ashley Viselli 6 5-6 19, Sarah Higgins 3 1-2 8, Coley Viselli 1 2-2 5, Erin McNamara 1 2-3 4, Holly Jakobsons 0 4-4 4, Tess Nogueira 1 0-3 2, Emily Lane 0 0-0 0, Vanessa Cahill 0 0-4 0, Lauren Iola 0 0-0 0, Alyssa Nogueira 0 0-0 0. Totals 12 14-24 42
3-pointers: L — Eckert 3; P — A. Viselli 2, C. Viselli, Higgins
Pentucket (26-1):    10 18  8  6 — 42
Lee (24-1):    13 11 15 17 — 56

EXETER, N.H. — The stunned silence that washed over the Timberlane bench and fan section with 13 seconds left in the contest simply told the story.

“It was tough,” said Owls head coach Andrew Merrick. “A bounce of the puck here and there decided it.”

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Salem suffered from a role reversal last night in the opening round of the Class L tournament.

Having lived a healthy existence for years on their outside shooting, the No. 9-seed Blue Devils not only turned cold, but they fell victim to the 3-point shooting of No. 8 Manchester Memorial.

MERRIMACK — The number 13 couldn't be any luckier for Londonderry.

As the 13th seed last year, the Lancers traveled to Manchester and took Central out of the Class L tournament. This year, No. 13 Londonderry shook off a regular season loss to Merrimack less than a week ago and bounced the No. 4 seed, 53-47, last night in first round action.

DERRY, N.H. - Losing track of Alex Patrikis might have been the fatal error that sealed Spaulding's fate.

The 6-foot-4 Pinkerton Academy junior shook loose for a career-high 18 points with a dozen rebounds in the Astros 59-45 Class L tourney-opening win over the Red Raiders.

BOSTON — Andover’s Devon Caveney knew her job yesterday was to shot the basketball after seeing that Mansfield was heavily guarding the two top shooters on her team in a Division 1 state semifinal contest.

MANCHESTER, N.H. — The state Final Four is a good time to show off a tough defense. But for Pinkerton, it was just more of the same stellar work it has displayed the final month.

The second-seeded Astros advanced to their third title game in the 41-year history of the tourney, dominating third-seeded Londonderry 60-39 last night at the Southern New Hampshire University Fieldhouse.

BOSTON — “You can’t stop her! You can’t stop her!”

The Pentucket student section chanted this after senior Erin McNamara snuck past a pair of Archbishop Williams defenders and scored a lay-up with 26 seconds left in the first half of the Division 3 state semifinal contest yesterday at the TD Garden.

BOSTON — As teammate Jimmy Zenevitch fired up a pair of free throws in the game’s final seconds, Central Catholic star Carson Desrosiers took a moment to bask in the singing of the Raiders’ alma mater near the Boston Celtics’ logo at center court.