After starting the season at 2-2, the Londonderry High School Boys’ Basketball team was able to boost their record over the .500 mark with tough wins on their home court last week.
The Lancers started the week facing the 1-3 Spaulding High School contingent on Tuesday night, Jan. 7, where the home squad secured their third victory with a 59-52 victory over the Red Raiders.
Three days later, despite an 11-point lead at halftime, the Lancers second victory of the week came down to a final-seconds play of the game, with LHS getting by the Salem Blue Devils 60-59.
In the Friday night, Jan. 10 game against Salem High School, Londonderry outscored Salem 12-9 in the first quarter, then 19-11 in the second for what seemed to be a comfortable 31-20 lead heading into the second half.
Coming out of the break, the Blue Devils stormed back 22-11 to finish the third quarter at and even 42-42.
In the final period, Londonderry managed to outscore Salem 18-17 for the slim win.
The final play of the game, with just over one second left on the clock, was a three-point attempt that went in as time expired. After a lengthy post-buzzer conference between officials, it was determined that the Salem shooter had his foot over the three-point line leading to the home court celebration.
Senior forward Mason Paquette led the team with 13-points.
Fellow senior forward Matt Luongo finished with ten points, including two, three-pointers.
Senior guards Cam Madden and Kiet Totten both put up eight-points in the victory.
Senior forward Blake Thompson drained two, three-pointers and senior guard Jameson Seaman finished with five-points.
In the game against Spalding, earlier in the week, wasn’t nearly as tight, despite Londonderry having two low-scoring quarters.
The Red Raiders took a 16-11 to start the first, but LHS bounced back 23-9 in the second for a 34-25 Lancer lead at the half.
The nine-point lead dropped to six-points in the third and LHS secured the win outscoring Spaulding 15-14 in the final quarter for the seven-point victory.
Paquette accounted for over half of his team’s points in the game with 32. Paquette was a perfect 8-8 at the foul line, had four, three-pointers with six inside the arc.
Luongo and junior guard Casey Marsh both tallied nine-points.
Senior forward Nathan Marshall finished with six-points.
Londonderry started this week with a home game against Nashua South (4-2) on Tuesday night, followed by a Friday night game against neighboring Alvirne High School, on Friday night, at 6:30 p.m.