{"id":11967,"date":"2024-03-06T10:31:57","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T10:31:57","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"Pembroke-Boys-Basketball-Semifinal-54263200\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=11967","title":{"rendered":"Boys\u2019 basketball: Hanover grinds down Pembroke, ends the Spartans season in the D-II semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Pembroke
Pembroke guard Joe Fitzgerald (20) is surrounded by four Hanover players as he attempts to go to the basket during the second half of a Division II semifinal game at Oyster River High School on Tuesday night.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Pembroke
Pembroke forward Aidyn Jeski comforts teammate Evan Berkeley as the Hanover team begins to celebrate during the end of the Division II semifinal at Oyster River High School on Tuesday, March 5, 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Pembroke
Pembroke guard Zach\u00a0Bemis battles Hanover guard Ryan Mclaughlin during the second half of the Division II semifinal at Oyster River High School on Tuesday, March 5, 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>

DURHAM \u2013\u00a0Entering Tuesday night\u2019s Division II boys\u2019 basketball semifinal, the No. 3 Pembroke Spartans (18-3) knew exactly what No. 2 Hanover (19-1) was going to do: run a remarkably methodical offense and play smart, disciplined defense. Pembroke knew exactly what it was walking into Oyster River High School to face, but\u00a0it couldn\u2019t get the job done.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Bears raced out to an 11-4 lead at the end of the first quarter, and although the Spartans had cut the lead to 21-18 by halftime and were within three (41-38) with 1:24 left in the game, Hanover prevailed, 49-43.<\/p>\n

It was a game of conflicting styles \u2014\u00a0Pembroke, which wants to get out and run on offense, and Hanover, which is perfectly content to drain two minutes off the clock before even attempting a shot. From the beginning, it was the Bears who dictated the pace of play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey pass the ball extremely well, they defend extremely well, they rebound real well,\u201d Pembroke head coach Mike Donnell said of Hanover. \u201cWhat they don\u2019t do that most of us all do is, they don\u2019t make mistakes. It\u2019s always the team that makes the fewest\u00a0mistakes that usually wins in the end. They made a lot less than us tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The semifinal was a rematch of a game from Jan. 15 that the Bears won, 53-31. That game caught the Spartans a bit off guard; this time, even with Pembroke prepared for Hanover\u2019s style of basketball, the Spartans still couldn\u2019t get over the hump.<\/p>\n

The Bears\u2019 length plays a major role in the success of their defense, which does a tremendous job of helping on the ball, pinching toward the rim and preventing second-chance scoring opportunities. None of the six players who played significant minutes for the Bears were\u00a0shorter than 6-0; four were 6-2 or taller. By contrast, Pembroke has just two players 6-2\u00a0or taller, but neither Javien Sinclair nor Aidyn Jeski played a ton.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have good size,\u201d Donnell said. \u201cJaysen Oriol was almost impossible to defend on the post. They have (four) guys that are 6-2 or 6-3. We don\u2019t have that. We tried to compensate for it, but their size got the better of us tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hanover\u2019s Oriol led all scorers in the game with 19 points. For Pembroke, senior Joe Fitzgerald led the Spartans with 16 points, half of which came in the fourth quarter. He\u2019d aimed to carry this team to UNH for the championship\u00a0but came one game short.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe apologized to the boys tonight, felt as though he let them down,\u201d Donnell said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t his best game, but like I told Joe, \u2018If you weren\u2019t you, we wouldn\u2019t be here tonight.\u2019 He brought us here. He had a phenomenal career. \u2026\u00a0I told him he\u2019s got nothing to be ashamed of. Joe is a coach\u2019s basketball player. Anyone would want him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuesday was also the end for Pembroke\u2019s two other seniors, Mason Gagne and Zach Al-Shawafi.<\/p>\n

After last March ended with a loss to Pelham in the championship game, Pembroke was laser-focused on clearing that final hurdle this year. The Spartans put together another strong regular season, finishing 16-2 despite losing nine players from last year\u2019s team, and\u00a0positioned themselves to make another run at a title.\u00a0But it wasn\u2019t to be. Hanover simply played better.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest lesson I hope they learn from this is that life is not easy,\u201d Donnell said. \u201cYou\u2019re always going to run into obstacles, and at times things aren\u2019t\u00a0going to go your way. That\u2019s part of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019s lots for the Spartans to look back on and feel pride in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a big banquet next Thursday night, (and) we\u2019re going to celebrate our season like we should because there\u2019s so much to celebrate,\u201d Donnell said.\u00a0\u201cAnd then we\u00a0move on. Turn the page.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat else can you do?\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DURHAM \u2013\u00a0Entering Tuesday night\u2019s Division II boys\u2019 basketball semifinal, the No. 3 Pembroke Spartans (18-3) knew exactly what No. 2 Hanover (19-1) was going to do: run a remarkably methodical offense and play smart, disciplined defense. Pembroke knew…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188,"featured_media":11968,"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":[24,505,274],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[533],"class_list":["post-11967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-youth","category-top-headlines-cm","tag-facebook","tag-paywall","tag-pembroke-academy","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/43085545-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11967","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=11967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11969,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11967\/revisions\/11969"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11967"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=11967"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=11967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}