Holy Family boys roll into new year

MANCHESTER, NH – Having only played two of four scheduled games prior to the Christmas/New Year’s break due to weather and health-related postponements, the Holy Family Academy boys basketball team was already as many as 5 games played behind many of its Division IV competitors. Add to that reality that the Griffins themselves had difficulty practicing with a full team due to preseason sickness and injuries, and it would be understandable to expect the team to show a little rust heading into their holiday tournament.

They showed very little.

Competing in the round robin portion of the West Side Christmas Classic, the host Griffins proved inhospitable in soundly defeating D-IV foes Mount Royal Academy, Moultonborough Academy and Hinsdale High School, but they were edged by three to Division-II Sanborn.

However, in the subsequent elimination tournament, the Griffins upped their game, first knocking out Hinsdale, 43-31, then exacting revenge on Sanborn, 56-42, to take the tourney title with a 5-1 overall record.

So even though Holy Family dropped its first regular-season contest of the season Wednesday night, falling to defending state runner-up Concord Christian, 67-63, the Griffins have now tested their mettle across divisions and proven they belong, not only with D-IV’s best like Concord Christian and Derryfield, but also D-II competitors like Sanborn.

“Going into January, we haven’t really had enough games to know where we stand, but the Christmas tournament helped because it showed us where we stand against some really good teams,” said Lacasse.Holy Family had hosted a similar tournament in the past, but suspended the annual effort due to COVID the last two years, opting instead to travel to Farmington for the Mike Lee Holiday Basketball Bash, but when that fell through this winter, Lacasse said he and administrators were excited to pull together a home tournament rather than having to travel to a distant location.

“We worked real hard to get teams into the gym that we got and were ecstatic to manage to get some good teams in for a really fun tournament,” he said.

In addition to the rapid-fire affair that featured five girls games and 15 boys games, each contest with two 15-minute halves of running clock, this year’s West Side Christmas featured two three-point shooting contests – won by HFA’s own Gabe Lacasse and Mount Royal’s Katherine McMenaman – in addition to several other memorable moments.

“There was an eighth-grader from Mount Royal who pulled up to take a deep three, and his coach was yelling, ‘no, no,’ but he hit the shot and the bleachers went crazy and poured out onto the floor to celebrate the kid’s first ever varsity 3-point shot, and even our kids were excited because some of the kids played baseball with him last year, so it was moments like that that made the tournament pretty cool.”

In addition to standout performances by many of Holy Family’s usual suspects, including Yves Mugiraneza, Gabe Lacasse, Jack Vicinanzo, Sean Sullivan and Shawn Peterson, the elder Lacasse said he was able to lean into several of his role players including Jeremiah Guerrero.

“He’s a sophomore shooter who’s usually one of my early guys off the bench, and he has a history of hitting some big shots for us. He loves to shoot threes, and when his hand is hot, it’s very helpful, and it was hot for us when we needed it,” said Lacasse.

Similarly, Jordan Milus was called in for defensive duty in the championship game to lock down one of Sanborn’s top scoring threats and his did just that, limiting the Indians’ offensive output and forcing a couple turnovers in the process.

“He wasn’t expecting to be called on there, and he was definitely a little nervous and surprised, but we didn’t need him to go in there and shoot, we’ve got plenty of shooters, we needed him to go in there and play solid defense against one of their better players and he did exactly that,” said Lacasse.

Now 2-1 in regular-season play, the Griffins are scheduled to host 1-4 Wilton-Lyndeborough Friday night at 7, then travel to Newmarket for a rematch of last year’s quarterfinal barnburner against dominant junior Baris Fortier, one of the state’s top scorers, and the 4-1 Newmarket Mules Monday, Jan. 9, at 7 p.m. They also play at 2-2 Lin-Wood Friday, Jan. 13 at 7:30 p.m.