{"id":11212,"date":"2024-02-20T00:27:59","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T00:27:59","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"Pembroke-Coe-Brown-boys-basketball-54063071\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=11212","title":{"rendered":"Boys\u2019 basketball: Pembroke, already in playoff mode, runs full steam ahead past Coe-Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Pembroke\u2019s
Pembroke\u2019s Mason Gagne (24), Evan Berkeley (1) and Zach Al-Shawafi (23) surround Coe-Brown\u2019s Ryan Kouchoukos during Monday night\u2019s game.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Coe-Brown\u2019s
Coe-Brown\u2019s Jack Matson contends with Pembroke sophomore Zach Bemis (11) leaping in front of him\u00a0during Monday\u2019s 65-47 win for Pembroke.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Joe
Joe Fitzgerald floats up a contested shot for the Spartans during their 65-47 win over Coe-Brown on Monday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Evan
Evan Berkeley drives to the basket for a layup during Monday\u2019s 65-47 win for the Spartans over Coe-Brown.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>

PEMBROKE \u2013\u00a0When the Pembroke Spartans come out shooting like they did on Monday night, they\u2019re almost impossible to stop. Even against Coe-Brown, one of the better defensive teams in Division II, the Spartans would not be denied in their 65-47\u00a0victory.<\/p>\n

Senior guard Joe Fitzgerald led the way on offense for Pembroke with 24 points on his senior night. Juniors Devin Riel and Evan Berkeley added 14 and 13 apiece. The Bears\u2019 Quinn Salter led his team with 15.<\/p>\n

For a game between two teams battling\u00a0for a top-four seed in the D-II playoffs, there was surprisingly little drama. Pembroke burst out of the gate to a 23-12 lead after the first quarter and a 35-19 lead at halftime.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey came out full throttle tonight. They really came out with a purpose tonight,\u201d Pembroke head coach Mike Donnell said. \u201cThey wanted to make a statement, and I think right from the start, they did. They played with confidence. They knew that if we had lost this game, Coe-Brown takes the (three) seed away from us. Their mentality right now is keep winning until we get to UNH. They played a very good game tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bears generally like to grind down their opponents for wins, but Pembroke\u2019s speed and athleticism simply proved too tough to slow down. With Coe-Brown often relying on defensive turnovers to convert into easy points, the Spartans\u2019 ability to take care of the ball prevented\u00a0easy buckets in transition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Facing Pembroke\u2019s set defense, the Bears just couldn\u2019t generate much.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey jammed our middle up pretty good,\u201d said Bears head coach Dave Smith. \u201cIt was very physical in the paint. That\u2019s the kind of game it was. Still, we did get quite a bit in the paint, but not enough obviously. And not enough early. We didn\u2019t get anything going early, which is (important), especially when you\u2019re playing away.\u201d<\/p>\n

The win for Pembroke guarantees it\u2019ll be a three seed at worst when the playoffs begin next week. At 15-2, the Spartans are a game behind Pelham and Hanover, both 16-1. Meanwhile, the Bears drop to 13-4 with the loss. They\u2019re still in fourth place and could lock up home court for the first two rounds with a win at Milford on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Coe-Brown\u2019s performance was suboptimal for sure \u2014 no team wants to lose by 18 in a late-regular season game against a fellow top-tier opponent. But Smith didn\u2019t see many flashing red lights that warranted concern from Monday\u2019s game. Pembroke simply played better.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me just say that I was not disappointed at all with the kids\u2019\u00a0effort,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThe effort was there all night. Just could not get good momentum. (Pembroke)\u00a0shot really well. To their credit, they\u2019re a very good team. There\u2019s a reason why they\u2019ve only lost two games. I don\u2019t think we played as well as we\u2019re capable of, and we\u2019ll be better. Effort-wise, we\u2019re there. Just couldn\u2019t get it done tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Pembroke, Monday was the latest example of how tough it will be to slow down the Spartans\u2019 offense come playoff time. Fitzgerald turned in his latest standout effort\u00a0in a season full of brilliant performances. But the Spartans\u2019 strength isn\u2019t just\u00a0Fitzgerald. It\u2019s Fitzgerald and the entire cast around him, including\u00a0Berkeley,\u00a0Riel, Mason Gagne and\u00a0Zach\u00a0Bemis who all had notable contributions against Coe-Brown.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good team win,\u201d Donnell said. \u201cWe kept their scoring a little bit down, even though we had a little bit of a lapse in the fourth quarter. But we played a lot of players. Overall just extremely impressed with the group of young men we have. They\u2019re in the right frame of mind right now. They know what\u2019s at stake, and I think they\u2019re giving it their best shot, and that\u2019s all as a coach you can ask for.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PEMBROKE \u2013\u00a0When the Pembroke Spartans come out shooting like they did on Monday night, they\u2019re almost impossible to stop. Even against Coe-Brown, one of the better defensive teams in Division II, the Spartans would not be denied in their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188,"featured_media":11213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_newspack_byline_active":true,"_newspack_byline":"by [Author id=188]Eric Rynston-Lobel[\/Author] Monitor staff","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,508],"tags":[374,24,505,274],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[533],"class_list":["post-11212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-youth","category-top-headlines-cm","tag-coe-brown-northwood-academy","tag-facebook","tag-paywall","tag-pembroke-academy","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/42966322-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/188"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11214,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11212\/revisions\/11214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11212"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=11212"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=11212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}