MANCHESTER, N.H. – A slow start proved to be the difference on Monday night as Oyster River left the Queen City with a 68-48 victory over Manchester West in the first round of the 2020 NHIAA Division II Boys’ Basketball Tournament.
The Bobcats scored the game’s first nine points as the visitors finished the first quarter with a 19-12 advantage. That lead came in large part to Oyster River’s advantage on the boards (10-to-5) and the Blue Knights poor shooting from the field (30.7%). That trend continued in the second quarter as Oyster River’s rebounding advantage only grew (11-to-4) and West’s shooting did not improve (28.6%).
“We knew how important in this gym it would be to play strong right away,” Oyster River Head Coach Lorne Lucas.
With West’s rebounding deficit and poor shooting, the Bobcats continued to force West out of its comfort zone as the Bobcats build a 39-24 lead at the half, echoing West’s 71-57 regular season defeat at Oyster River in late January.
“They were a little bit bigger, a little big stronger than we were and we just didn’t shoot well,” said West Head Coach Justin Gorham. “The way we play is fast and they play zone so well. It really slowed things down. We needed to shoot well to react to that and we just didn’t.”
Oyster River opened up a 55-35 advantage by the end of the third quarter as the Blue Knights managed to reduce the margin of defeat thanks to a pair of threes from Rashawn Prescott and seven late points from Kur Teng.
Teng led the Blue Knights with 18 points and 11 rebounds, with Josh Rose contributing 13 points and Prescott adding nine.
Oyster River’s Joe Morrell led all scorers with 24 points, also providing the Bobcats with 18 rebounds. Hayden Marshall and Kyle Miller each finished with 13 points as Ben Mattioni also ended in double digits with 10 points for the Bobcats.
Monday night’s win earned Oyster River a spot in of Friday night’s four quarterfinal games. They’ll face top-seeded ConVal on that road, with second-seeded Bow facing seventh-seeded Kennett and third-seeded Pelham facing sixth-seeded Lebanon.
Fifth-seeded Hanover defeated 12th-seeded Kearsarge 76-45 for a spot in the fourth game. They’ll face either fourth-seeded Hollis-Brookline or 13th-seeded Laconia, with Monday’s contest in Hollis-Brookline postponed due to concerns over a Hollis-Brookline teacher reporting Coronavirus systems earlier in the day.
