By Chris Paul
Despite having a number of players sitting on the bench due to injuries or illness over the last two weeks, head coach Nate Stanton and his Londonderry High School Basketball squad is heading into to final week of the regular season at the .500 mark, getting a win and a loss last week.
The team’s week started on Monday, Jan. 24, with a slim 66-62 loss suffered at home against Merrimack High School, where having three boys out of the line up definitely proved to be a difference maker.
The Lancers started the game very strong, outscoring the Tomahawks 25-22 in the first quarter and led 35-34 by halftime.
The third quarter proved to be Londonderry’s biggest problem, being outscored 20-14 and not being able to recover in the fourth from the 54-49 deficit at the end of that period.
Lancer senior guard Tyler Murray led the team in scoring with 23-points, including five, three-pointers.
Senior forward Aiden Warren scored 14-points, freshman Mason Paquette had 12-points and junior Kevin Rourke finished with 11-points.
The result of that game was a fourth straight loss for the Lancer squad and they were looking to right the ship four days later when the team traveled to Exeter High School to play the 10-5 Blue Hawks.
In that game on Friday night, Jan. 28, the LHS team broke their losing streak and kept Exeter away from the hoop for a 50-43 win.
The Lancers managed to hold Exeter to just two-points, on foul shots, in the first quarter and tallied 16 of their own to start the game.
Londonderry fell short in the second, scoring just four to the Blue Hawks 10-points. The half finished with a 20-12 Lancer lead.
In the third, Exeter closed the gap to get within six, but LHS held on for the victory.
Paquette had 15-points in the game to lead his Lancer team in scoring.
Murray had 11-points, Warren had nine-points, senior guard Justin Hoggard finished with eight-points and Rourke had seven in the win.
The team rolled into the final week of the regular season at 8-8 and played the Salem Blue Devils on Monday night at home and traveled to Nashua North for the final game of the season before heading into the Division I playoffs.