Merrimack defeats Central to win D1 basketball championship

DURHAM – The Merrimack High School boys basketball team was not at full strength when it lost to Manchester Central in the final game of the regular season.

The Tomahawks were a hundred percent Saturday for the first and only time all season, and it showed.

No. 7 Merrimack took an early lead and had an answer for every run No. 4 Central made, winning the Division I championship with a 65-56 victory at the University of New Hampshire.

Dimitri Floras led the ’Hawks (16-6) with 23 points, 18 of which came in the second half, while Eric Gendron added 16 markers and Tyler Gendron and Jeff Giannelli each had 10.

When the teams met a little more than two weeks ago – a 54-47 win at Central – Merrimack was without Floras, who had aggravated a sprained ankle in his first game back from a broken wrist, and Jackson King, who was also out with a broken wrist.

After a slow first half on Saturday, Floras gave Merrimack that extra push to get past the Little Green (16-6).

“Floras just showed how good of a player he is and how he makes other people better,” Merrimack coach Tim Goodridge said. “That’s not to take away from those other kids. You need more than one player and I thought some kids stepped up.”

Central coach Doc Wheeler had hoped that at some point, Floras would tire and slow down at the end of the game.

“I was kind of hoping that his physical conditioning wasn’t really what it was and that by the fourth quarter, he was going to not have any legs,” Wheeler said. “He never fatigued and he kept getting better. He’s dynamic and he’s a play maker. We had to do a better job to deny the ball, when he gave it up, to not let him get it back.”

The Little Green did do a good job of keeping the ’Hawks from getting into their transition game. Central didn’t allow any break outs through the first two quarters and into the third, but that wouldn’t last forever.

The teams were trading baskets through the first half of the third quarter, with a jumper by Eric Gendron putting Merrimack up 33-29. A block at the other end by Kyle Richardson allowed the ’Hawks to get on the run, with Floras finishing the break with a layup to make it a six-point game.

After a Central timeout, the teams went back to trading baskets and the ’Hawks led 42-37 at the end of the third.

Christian Artiga, who finished with 10 points, opened the fourth with a layup for Central to make it a three-point game, but a three-point play by Giannelli and a 3-pointer by Floras helped put Merrimack up 48-41 with 5:42 to play.

Central got a free throw from Junior Brown, but Giannelli added two of his own from the line, and after a Little Green turnover, Floras hit another 3. That triple gave Merrimack its largest lead 53-42 with 4:22 to play.

“My shot just started going down,” Floras said. “I was feeling it the whole game, but first half, my shots just weren’t going. Second half, they went in.”

Floras helped put the exclamation point on the game when he drove the lane and dished to Tyler Gendron, who slammed it home, firing up the crowd and starting a celebration on the Merrimack bench.

“They wanted a slow game and sets and keep it at that speed and we wanted to run,” Goodridge said. “When we got to run, it was pretty flashy and some pretty good stuff. We just really grinded them all night defensively. I’m not saying we wore them out, but we just D’ed and D’ed and D’ed and it worked for us.”

Central got 15 points from both Troy Pelletier and Gabe Lacount.

It’s Merrimack’s first title since 2004, when the ’Hawks won the second of back-to-back championships. Central was playing in the championship game for the fifth time since 2000, and the Little Green fell in a final for the first time since 1990.