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Perennial power Charlestown was no match for Central Catholic, which rolled to a 76-42 state tourney victory. Jimmy Zenevitch and Joel Berroa combined for 33 points

DURHAM, N.H. — Four quarters of Zach Mathieu weren’t quite enough for Pinkerton yesterday afternoon, but two overtimes did the trick.

Thanks to Mathieu’s record-setting 37 points, the Astros knocked off Winnacunnet to win their first Class L title since 1990, 61-59 in double overtime before 2,400 fans at Lundholm Gym at the University of New Hampshire.

DURHAM, N.H. – Alex Burt made the mistake of showing Ben Proulx the basketball.

The Pinkerton Academy strongman simply ripped the rock away from New Hampshire’s Mr. Basketball, sealing the 61-57 Class L semifinal thriller with a free throw as 2.9 seconds remained, powering the Astros into Saturday’s state championship.

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.”

NASHUA, N.H. — The Londonderry boys have advanced to the state quarterfinals each of the past six years. And for the sixth straight time, the Lancers’ state playoff run has ended without a trip to the Class L final four. Held to only one field goal in the opening period, the 13th-seeded Lancers fell to fifth-seeded Bishop Guertin 64-39 before a full house last night. The Cardinals (16-5) never let Londonderry find its bearings, as BG used nine different players in the first quarter. And with its stifling full court pressure it forced the Lancers (10-13) to miss nine of 10 field goal attempts. “We knew coming into the game they’d be coming at us in waves,” said Londonderry coach Jeff Gustavson, who filled in this season for veteran coach Jim Zorbas, who took a year sabbatical. “We thought we needed to slow the game down in order to have a shot. We tried it at times, but the kids I think just got frustrated that they weren’t making shots. And a lot of those missed shots led to easy points by them.” Sean McClung had 11 of his 15 points in the first quarter as BG raced to a 20-4 advantage. “We’ve been doing that all year,” BG coach Jimmy Migneault said. “I have such a deep bench, and I can play them all. What it does is gets to the other team’s legs. We hit you in runs.” The Cardinals forced Londonderry to spend most of the first half on the perimeter, and the Lancers responded by making only two of their 14 attempts from 3-point range. In addition, Londonderry committed 12 first-half turnovers. “Turnovers have been a problem for us all year,” said Gustavson, whose team upset shorthanded No. 4 Merrimack in the opening round. “We’ve been relying on a bunch of guys handling the ball for us. There are quarters when we don’t turn the ball over, and we’re obviously a much better team when we don’t. But (BG) just comes after you with relentless pressure, and it wears on you.” Londonderry did score the first seven points of the second quarter, cutting its deficit to nine, but the Cardinals once again turned up the pressure en route to a 30-17 advantage at intermission. BG removed any doubt with a 15-5 run to open the second half. The Cardinals, who had 11 players score at least two points, took their biggest lead of the game — 51-26 — with 6:04 left. Michael Colby and Matthew Sanborn each scored nine points to lead Londonderry while Jake Finnegan and Jeff Bintz each added seven. Bishop Guertin, which received a game-high 16 points from Connor Green, advances to Wednesday’s 4 p.m. semifinal at the University of New Hampshire against top-seeded Winnacunnet.

Bishop Guertin 64, Londonderry 39 Class L quarterfinals Londonderry (39): Michael Colby 3 2-2 9, Matthew Sanborn 2 5-5 9, Jake Finnegan 2 3-4 7, C.J. Flanders 1 0-1 3, Jeff Bintz 1 5-8 7, Nick Martinez 0 2-3 2, Ian McMullen 1 0-0 2, Eric Doucette 0 0-0 0, Troy Mansfield 0 0-0 0, Zachary Champa 0 0-0 0, Tyler Ball 0 0-0 0, Jared Schwalbe 0 0-0 0. Totals 10 17-23 39. Bishop Guertin (64): Scott St. Lawrence 3 2-3 8, Ryana Turner 1 0-0 2, Luke Lavash 3 0-0 9, Connor Green 5 5-5 16, Sean McClung 5 4-5 15, Kyle Coumas 1 1-2 3, Nicholas Pyzocha 1 0-0 2, Michael Kelly 0 2-4 2, Stephen Cuippa II 1 0-0 3, Kyle Remillard 0 0-0 0, Trent Fontanella 1 0-0 2, Jack Kelly 0 0-0 0, Daniel Folger 0 2-2 2, Chris Lamb 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 16-21 64. 3-pointers: L — Colby, Flanders; BG — Lavash 3, Green, McClung. Londonderry (10-13):     4 13  9 13 — 39 Bishop Guertin (16-5):    20 10 17 17 — 64

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.

Bow outscored Pelham 6-2 in the final 70 seconds to win their first round state tourney matchup. Stephen Spirou and Mike Lombard had 23 each in defeat.