Bishop Guertin's Lucas Baker shoots over Nashua South's Rhett Medling during the Cards' 55-39 win at the Colligadome last Tuesday. The two teams meet again tonight at BG in the first round of the Divison I tourney. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – It all starts tonight.

The local high school boys and girls basketball and hockey tournaments get underway this week and the first main event will be the Division I prelim at Bishop Guertin between the Cards and the Panthers of Nashua South at 6 p.m.

It will be a rematch of a game won by BG last Tuesday, 55-39.

Also, in a Division II play-in, Souhegan will host Manchester West at 7 p.m. while Wilton-Lyndeborough visits Mount Royal Academy in Sunapee at 6 p.m.

The Guertin-South game last week, it was really three games within a game. The Cardinals stormed out to a 16-2 lead, South rallied to take a 28-26 halftime lead, but Guertin had taken control with an eight point lead heading into the final period. Dylan Santosuosso (14 points) and Lucas Baker (13, eight in first quarter) led BG, while South got 10 from Jeremiah Mitchell and eight from Cody Rochileau. The Panthers’ problem all season has been scoring.

“The third quarter really hurt us, not excuting the offense as well as we had earlier,” South coach Nate Mazerolle said that night. “Then we started making some plays and were right on the cusp of it. We ran out of time, all of the energy it took to get back in, we were exhausted.

“We know matchups a little bit better … We know we can play with them, and we’re very confident we can beat them. It (the Colligadome) is a tough place to play, always has been. But the kids are very excited.”

The Cardinals, who finished the regular season 13-5 – amazing the Cards got 18 games in – while South ended up 4-8, losing its last five. The winner of this one visits Nashua North on Thursday.

“I think we’re going to get at least as good a game,” Gueritn coach John Fisher said that night. “They’ll watch (the film), I’ll watch it, and try and figure things out. We need to play better, consistently, and hope things go better for (tonight).”

In Division II, Souhegan finished an abbreiated season, finishing 1-4. West was 3-9, and the two teams did not clash.

In Division IV, the Warriors went winless. Mt. Royal won at least four games, but the two did not play each other.

TUESDAY’S GAMES

If you’re looking ahead to Tuesday, locally the day starts with the Souhegan at Bishop Guertin girls hockey prelim (3:30 p.m. at Hudson’s Cyclones Arena), and girls basketball play-ins Alvirne vs. Nashua South (Division I, 6 p.m.) and again Souhegan at Manchester West (Division II, 7 p.m.)

The South-Alvirne girls game is tentatively slated for South’s Belanger Gym. Nashua AD Lisa Gingras is looking to amend the policy of no visiting fans so a limited number of Alvirne fans can attend, but will seek city approval tonight to do so. If not, the game could possibly be moved to Alvirne.

For the Broncos and Panthers, it will be the third meeting in eight nights between the two teams, South having own both.

WRESTLING FUTURE

The wrestling team (dual meet) tournament, created in place of the divisional title meets (all schools in one division competing in each weight class with individual champions as well as a team champion) is getting rave reviews.

That means it might stick around somehow, if the NHIAA Wrestling Committee can figure out a way, when/if things with the pandemic improve for some sense of normalcy for the 2021-2022 school year.

It would likely mean adding a weekend to the post season, and of course if there are New England championships, you could start with that and work backward three weeks.

At least a couple of local athletic directors, Nashua’s Lisa Gingras and Hollis Brookline’s Rhon Rupp, have said they would like it to continue, or at least think it could.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Rupp said. “I would hope the NHIAA wrestling committee looks at next year, doing both. A lot of states do that. So you would have the team tournament like you do right now, and the following week you do an individual tournament.”

And then have a Meet of Champions, Rhupp said. So you add a Saturday to the post season, with a week-plus of dual meet playoffs before that.

“We’ve talked about it,” Rhupp said. “Never done it, until we were forced to (by the pandemic). My own personal feeling is it was a good thing.”

PARR WILL BE MISSED

New Hampshire basketball suffered another major loss this past weekend when former Portsmouth, St. Thomas and Hopkinton basketball coach Dan Parr passed away at the age of 81 after a few years, reportedly, after a few years of poor health.

Parr is in the New England Basketball Hall of Fame as well as the New Hampshire Basketball Coaches Organization Hall of Fame.

Parr won state titles with St. Thomas in the early 1990s and also won three titles coaching Hopkinton.

Parr also did a stint coaching the Portsmouth girls, and was an immensely popular figure in New Hampshire basketball circles, and on the seacoast. He was a constant presence at state tourney games at UNH’s Lundholm Gym.

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