Alvirne’s boys’ basketball was a bit crazy this past week with head coach Leo Gershgorin’s resignation coming on Monday afternoon and Christian Patnaude taking over for Gershgorin right before Tuesday’s game against Bedford. It didn’t seem to matter too much to the Broncos, as they managed to battle Bedford and only lose 69-60 and then battle Goffstown Friday to a 50-49 final with Goffstown scoring the game-winner on a buzzer-beater, spoiling Alvirne’s senior night.
Tuesday night, Alvirne traveled to Bedford for a matchup against Division II’s second seed and a team that is poised to make a deep run in the playoffs. They managed to jump out to a 5-2 lead on the Bulldogs early on before Bedford quickly made it 7-5 and then Aiden Mills tied things up at 7-7 just over a minute and a half into the game. Bedford then attempted to pull away a bit, getting a 12-7 lead before Gabe Conrow managed to give the Broncos a 15-14 lead with just over four minutes to play in the first quarter. Alvirne pushed that lead to 17-14 and then 23-17 before allowing the Bulldogs to go on a 7-0 run to end the first quarter up by the slimmest of margins 21-23.
In the second, Bedford would jump out to a 32-25 lead before allowing the Broncos to climb back into the game, tying it at 32-32 with just over three minutes to play in the half. Niko Badoian’s three-pointer with 2:00 left in the half gave Bedford the lead back, but Alvirne re-gained the lead 36-35 with just over a minute left in the half. Alvirne took the lead into the half after each team hit a two-pointer 38-37.
The Bulldogs seemed to wake up in the third quarter, outscoring the Broncos 15-8 and taking a 52-45 lead into the game’s final frame. Alvirne, if nothing else, was proving that Bedford was a beatable team. If not by them, then perhaps by someone else.
Alvirne got the game to as close as a three-point game in the fourth before the Bulldogs were able to pull away and beat the Broncos 69-60.
On Friday, it was senior night for Alvirne where the Broncos celebrated their lone senior, Aiden Mills before their matchup with the Grizzlies. This game didn’t mean a ton in the standings for Alvirne, as they were going to finish either ninth or tenth in the standings depending on the outcome of their game and Nashua South/Portsmouth.
Alvirne jumped out to a 15-6 lead through the first quarter of action, and they were poised to potentially have a trip to Nashua South lined up, as the Panthers beat the Clippers to lock up the eighth seed. Unfortunately for Alvirne, the Grizzlies put up 19 points to Alvirne’s 10 in the second quarter, sending the game to the half with the Grizzlies up 27-25.
The third quarter saw the lead switch hands repeatedly with Alvirne ultimately coming out on top 42-40 through three quarters. Sammy Dewitt led the way in the third quarter with five points. Alex Valenzuela and Garrett Hall added four points each and Andrew Deely had two in the third quarter. The Santos brothers, Gio and Isaiah, led the way for the Grizzlies in the third, accounting for ten total points.
In the fourth, it was more of the same story as the third quarter: back-and-forth action with the lead switching hands almost on a possession-by-possession basis. Goffstown ultimately outscored the Broncos 10-7 in the final frame with the final three points coming on a shot from Gio Santos with 1.3 seconds on the clock. Alvirne was unable to tie the game and send it to overtime, so they fell by a final score of 50-49 on senior night, dropping their record to 9-9 and solidifying a matchup against the Blackbirds in Keene on Wednesday at 5:00 PM. The winner of Keene/Alvirne will play the winner of Bedford/Manchester Central on Saturday, March 2.
