Division I boys basketball semifinal preview

The tournament that most people expected to be a tossup finally reached such status after an surprisingly unsurprising first round.

Only one of the top four seeds will be in Durham on Tuesday night for the final four, and neither of the higher seeds are a lock to reach Saturday’s championship game.

Here’s a quick look at the matchups for Tuesday night’s Division I boys basketball semifinals, which will start at 5:30 p.m. at the University of New Hampshire.

No. 7 Winnacunnet (14-6) vs. No. 3 Manchester Central (16-4), 5:30 p.m.

The Little Green won the regular-season meeting 48-45 in Hampton when the Warriors missed a game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer. That was the start of a five-game winning streak that has Central back in the semifinals after a year away.

Winnacunnet also hasn’t lost since that game, winning four in a row, including Saturday’s quarterfinal upset of No. 2 Pinkerton. It was the Warriors second win over the Astros this season, as they beat Pinkerton by an average of 12.5 points in those two games.

Winnacunnet, which hasn’t been to the final since 2010, will look to Liam Viviano to lead the way on offense and try to rely on a defense that held opponents under 55 points 15 times this season.

The 48 points Central scored in the regular season against the Warriors was its second-lowest total of the season, but the bigger court at UNH gives the Little Green an advantage. Central needed overtime to dispatch of No. 6 Bedford in the quarterfinals, getting 25 points from Jaylen LeRoy and 22 from Jon Makori.

No. 9 Manchester Memorial (13-7) vs. No. 5 Merrimack (14-6), 7:30 p.m.

Here are two teams that looked like semifinalists in late January, and appeared to be going nowhere fast at the end of the regular season. Memorial entered the tournament losing four of five, while Merrimack was 3-4 in its final seven heading into the playoffs.

Coming back from the brink has become habit for the Crusaders, who overcame a 22-point deficit in the second half in the first round at Nashua South, and then rallied from five points down with about a minute to play against Nashua North in the quarterfinals.

And Memorial’s lone win during its late, regular-season slide? It was a 66-62 win over Merrimack.

The Tomahawks have one of the best defenses in the state, but allowed over 60 points five times in their final seven games, going 1-4 in those games. Merrimack has returned to form a bit in the postseason, allowing just 26 in the first round to Bishop Guertin and 44 on Saturday against Spaulding in the quarterfinals.

Merrimack is looking for its third final appearance in the last five years – the first two were against Central – while Memorial hasn’t been to the final since 2009.