By Chris Paul
The Londonderry High School Boys Basketball team split the final two games of the regular season and will now head into the Division I Championships at 9-9, and right in the middle of the DI standings.
The team’s week started with their final home game of the season where they honored the squad’s seven seniors and came away with a much-needed 62-57 win over the Salem Blue Devils.
At senior night, the team celebrated the accomplishments of Tyler Murray, Justin Hoggard, Mike Rosatano, Manny Waters, Aiden Warren, Grady Daron and Andrew Sorrell before the game.
The Lancers started strong, outscoring Salem 17-14 and getting four three-pointers from three players.
The team added another four three-pointers in the second and lead 36-20 by the end of the first half.
The second half got a bit dicey for LHS, but they were able to hang on despite being outscored 37-26.
The team was back to full strength to start the week, after suffering the past few weeks with players out on injuries and illness.
Murray had a total of 14-points, with three three’s to lead the team in scoring.
Freshman guard Mason Paquette had 13-points. Senior forward Rosatano was back with 11-points to support the team and Tyler Brown finished with eight-points.
In the final game of the regular season, a game that was postponed one day due to the weather, the Lancers traveled to Nashua North High School to take on the very strong Titans, who have only lost three games this season.
The Lancers kept pace with Nashua North for the entire first half, trailing by two after one period and maintaining that spread into the second half.
Heading into the second half, with the Titans leading 33-31, the Nashua squad slowly pulled away outscoring LHS 17-12 in the third.
In the fourth, the Lancers were outscored by the widest margin in the game 19-13 for the 69-56 finish.
Murry had another three, three-point night and finished with 15-points to lead the team. Hoggard had 10-points, Warren had seven and Rosatano finished with six.
The team will have a rematch against Pinkerton Academy in the first round of the NHIAA Division I Playoffs in Derry, on Wednesday, Feb. 9, starting at 5 p.m.
The Londonderry boys were seeded number 13 in the tournament and the Astros finished the regular season with a 15-3 record and were seeded number four in the championships.