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Teams seem to be Coast-ing to March hoop titles

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Mar 16, 2018

Do you believe in fate?

Trends?

If you do, and you’re a Hollis Brookline High School boys basketball fan, you might be a little concerned about Saturday’s Division II finals vs. Oyster River at the University of New Hampshire’s Lundholm Gym.

Why?

When it comes to high school boys basketball in it’s been a Seacoast Kind of Year.

Last weekend, Somersworth beat a local team, Campbell, in the Division III finals at Southern New Hampshire University.

Now, this Saturday ends the winter sports season with a Divison I and II finals doubleheader, and three of the four teams are from the seacoast. And they’re all playing on the seacoast.

Portsmouth takes on Dover in the Division I title game at noon. The Clippers, the No. 1 seed, have been dominant all season long, the Green Wave is an upstart 11th seed. And they beat another seacoast team, Exeter, in a dramatic semifinal to get there.

And, how about this: 50 years ago Portsmouth and Dover played in the finals (Dover won 72-57). It was fate.

And now, the Cavaliers, the lone inland team left after Pittsfield won Division IV, have to face Oyster River, a team they beat during the regular season in Hollis, 67-58. HB is going to need the fandom to come out strong. The Bobcats and their fans have, oh, about a five minute ride to Lundholm. Yikes.

Don’t discount that. This Cavalier group got its win at Lundholm after losing in the semis a year ago. With the crowd, the noise, it takes some getting used to.

“This is like our second home court, they said, a couple of them,” Oyster River coach Lorne Lucas said of his players.

Uh-oh. Like Dover in Division I, Nobody thought the Bobcats would be here, even after they went a very respectable 12-6. That’s because they had a long way to go from a season ago.

“Last year we went 2-16,” Lucas said. “Going through that together, and trusting each other, and believing in each other, has really set us up for this year.”

Here’s a reason why you might think there’s some Seacoast Spirit controlling things. Really, the Bobcats shouldn’t be here, and not because they’re not deserving. HB should be playing Pembroke, but the ‘Cats made an unbelieveable play at the end of regulation to send Monday’s 58-57 win to overtime.

Down 48-46 in the final seconds of regulation, they smartly got the inbounds pass under their hoop to halfcourt and quickly called time. The clock said 1.8 ticks left, but the refs correctly put more time on to say three seconds.

Oyster River’s Brennen Oxford, who is headed to Wake Forest next year to play baseball, found teammate Max Lewis all the way down on the baseline on the half court inbounds pass. Lewis hit a layup to send things to the extra session.

“I trust Brennan Oxford to throw the ball,” Lucas said. “There’s a reason he’s going to Wake Forest, he’s a heckuva baseball player.So we put the ball in his hands, we knew they were going to try to take Kyle (18-point scorer Landrigan) away, and Max just split off, he was wide open. It worked. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. It was awesome.”

Hollis Brookline coach Cole Etten didn’t see the play, as he was getting his team ready for the second semi.

“I heard the crowd, though,” Etten said with a grin. “I’ll have to look at the film.”

The Cavs hope the film from this Saturday is a keeper. Seafood diets are healthy, but we all deserve an inland break now and then.

After all, the beach is for summer, not winter.

Tom King can be reached at 594-1251, tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or @Telegraph_TomK.

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