Nashua South's Josh Caruso, arguably the area's best offensive player, and Nashua North's Luke Peters, right, liely the best defender, will see each other again the end of this month. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

The preseason is over. Beginning tonight, the real season resumes.

It was a very brief preseason for a lot of winter sports, as most high school coaches will tell you, partly because of the late date of Thanksgiving. For example, basketball teams started official practice/tryouts on Dec. 2 and began games just 11 days later. Some years they’ve had as much as nearly three weeks.

Souhegan boys coach Peter Pierce has noticed the difference.

“We’re getting there, conceptual wise they’re starting to understand what we need to do,” he said of his team that is 3-0 in Division II and split a pair of games in last weekend’s Nashua Holiday Tournament. “But with the shorter preseason – it’s really short, all the coaches will tell you that – to think you’re going to get there before the first of January, anywhere reasonable – the quality of play has been pretty rough. Anywhere.”

Most teams competed in either two or three day tournaments over the time between Christmas and New Year’s, but those games don’t count in the regular season standings. And now the grind begins, two to sometimes three games a week depending on weather reschedulings, etc.

It starts with a full slate of Friday games for both boys — key one is Nashua North at Bishop Guertin — and girls, although some teams were waiting until this Tuesday. Meanwhile the tournaments provided a bit of hope for teams that got off to slow starts.

For example, Nashua North got two wins in capturing the Nashua tourney title, beating the highly touted Nashua South Panthers who are considered title contenders. North, also considered a posteseason factor, started the regualar season a somewhat unexpected 0-3, largely due to defensive struggles. They allowed a total of 78 points in two holiday games – less than what they had given up in one or two of their regular season contests.

“I think this is kind of the formula we’re going to have to use moving forward,” North coach Steve Lane said after th 47-44 title win over South. “Not so much the lower scoring stuff, because we left some opportunities out there to score. But the kids have really in the last two days have bought in to the defensive mentality and the philosophy. It usually takes a while with new guys, new kids. Hopefully we have a rotation now that we can use moving forward.”

A player who is emerging as the offensive catalyst for North is center Robinson Rodriguez, having perhaps his best season as a senior thus far. His talents were slated to be on display tonight at the Bishop Guertin Colligadome in a big local post-break matchup.

And South? The Panthers began at 3-0, are slated to host Keene tonight and probably hope the tape of what the Titans did doesn’t reveal too much.

“We’re still a 3-0 basketball team,” South coach Nate Mazerolle said, acknowledging some teams may have a blueprint on how to at least slow down South’s Josh Caruso-led offense. “We’ll make some adjustments. Like I think most teams talk about, we were very vanilla (during the tournament) with what we were trying to do out there … We were trying to work on speciific things we still need to get much better at.”

One thing the Panthers don’t seem to have quite as much as a year ago is the dribble penetration to help open up the outside.

“We don’t, but we will get that I think,” Mazerolle said. “Our two point guards, Ayden (Clough) and Linc (Vanderhost) are capable. It’s just we’ve got to get a little more (versatile). … The film (of the North loss) will be enlightening.”

If you want another local matchup to see, check out Mazerolle’s Panthers at Alvirne this coming Tuesday, part of a girls-boys doubleheader (5:30, 7 p.m.). It should be a very good early season indicator, as the Broncos are no slouch led by guard Sammy DeWitt and Garrett Hall, and they played well at a showcase event in Portland, Me. Merrimack has played well in the first two weeks, and so has Bishop Guertin. It’s possible this year that all five local Division I teams will make the tourney.

In Division II, Souhegan is off to a 3-0 start, and keep an eye on Hollis Brookline, which has looked much better in its early season, despite going 1-2. The Cavs two losses were by a combined six points, so they could easily be 3-0.

What to take from Souhegan’s 44-15 win over Milford in the holiday tourney? Not a lot; Souhegan is a bit ahead while Milford is still learning the system under new coach Leo Gershgorin but the Spartans do have a win over Kingswood and lost to John Stark by just three. They are set to be at Laconia Friday to start the grind.

Both Souhegan and Milford will be looking for different things than last weekend’s 44-15 scrimmage-type Saber win over the Spartans. Both teams were blown out by Nashua North and South, respectively in the tourney semis, setting up a third place game between the two longtime rivals.

The Sabers rolled to take third place in the tourney, holding the Spartans to just eight points over the last three quarters while placing 11 in the scoring column themselves, led by Joe Mayo’s 10 points. Ethan Szopa led Milford with five.

So what’s next? Milford’s (1-1 Division II, 1-3 overall) at Laconia on Friday while Souhegan (3-0, 4-1 overall) is at Coe-Brown that same night.

The hope is the holiday tourney experience will help. The preseason, because Thanksgiving was late, was limited to basically 10 days.

“We got to play, when during the week we wouldn’t have had anything, practices get a little stale,” Sabers coach Peter Pierce said. “So you’ve got to break that up with something, a scrimmage, somehow. We like this quick-hitter (Nashua tourney), couple of days, then we get back to practice …We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Pierce says the Sabers are indeed work in progress.

Milford coach Leo Gershgorin also appreciated the court time.

“I think this was great, great for our guys,” he said. “It was an eye-opening experience. They played bigger, stronger teams. We got an opportunity to see what we need to work on. From here we just have to chip away. The goal is to be at our best in two months.”

Gershgorin felt in the tournament there wasn’t much of a sense of urgency, etc. in his players, “and everything else kind of went by the wayside, the foundational fundamentals, basic decision making.

“You don’t bring those intangibles, stuff that you should, the skill stuff tends to fall by the wayside.”

The routine of the grind should help. In Division III, we have the makings of a local contender in Campbell, which was 3-0 going into the break and Friday was slated to come out of it at Belmont, also 3-0, so a good first test. Keep an eye on Caydeon DeLeon, who had 26 points, five steals and three assists in the Cougars’ last win. In Division IV, Wilton-Lyndeborough has been more competitive, going 2-2 to start.

The Milford girls were a happy group recently after capturing the Nashua Holiday Tourney for the second time in three years. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

GIRLS HOOP

In Division I, there is nothing in the first two weeks to dispell the notion that Bedford and Pinkerton are the class of the league. Nashua North found that out the hard way to start but Curt Dutilley feels now things will settle down. The Titans split two tourney games, losing to Alvirne but beating rival South.

“I think it’s just a matter of confidence,” Dutilley said. “We had the toughest starting schedule in the state – Pinkerton, Bedford, Dover. We played well against those teams but they’re still not wins so it’s in the back of your mind. Alvirne went through the same thing last year.They had that opening and it took them half a season and they came back (and made the quarters).

“Now the schedule gets a little more realistic coming out of the new year, and we can build some momentum. I think that’s been the hardest part for us.”

Dutilley takes pride in the fact the Titans held Bedford down to one of its lowest point totals in the last couple of years and put up 65 vs.Dover with two starters out. They’re led by Aidan Walker, Angela King, and Lillian Small. Nashua South proved that they have to be in high gear all the time; they were down 17 at the half vs. North and came back to cut the deficit to three twice before the Titans pull away. The Panthers engine? Remember the name Nicole De Jesus. As she goes in terms of her kamikaze styule, so it appears go the Panthers.The North-South boys and girls teams will see each other on Jan. 31 if you need a date to circle.

And remember this coming Tuesday, because the girls half of that Alvirne-South twinbill will be just as interesting because both teams love to run Alvirne, when healthy, appears to be the most complete team with the length of a Courtney Anderson, the toughness of a Julia Adams,and the shooting of a Lexi Floyd.

“I think we’re ahead of schedule,” Broncos coach Frank Girginis said. “We’re ahead of where anybody thought we would be. We’ll continue to work hard and grind. We’ve got Pinkerton when we get back, but that’s a chance for us to prove against one of the top teams that we can compete. I think we’re a little bit overlooked. But we’re OK with that. We’re going to try to surprise people with our work ethic and how hard we play.”

Merrimack got its first win before the break and Bishop Guertin opened some eyes with a win over Concord Christian to start the season, but the Cards were no match for Bedford in a lopsided loss in their second game. But it’s early.

You want to guess which the best team in the area may be? Try Division II’s Milford. The Spartans staked their claim when they beat Alvirne in the finals of the Nashua tourney, and coach Mike Davidson told his players before the event “There’s two trophies we want to raise, one in December and another in late February-March.”

The Spartans have the look of a Final Four team; with guard play from Shea Hansen and Lexi Bausha, Ellianna Nassy has length at forward, Avery Fuller can play inside or out, and all this with hopefully their best player from a year ago, Lulu Maguire, rejoining the team sometime in the next few weeks after she fully recovers from ACL surgery. So there’s a lot of optimism.

“Every game that we’ve played so far, scrimmage or regular season game, has been one step further along our path to where we want to go in terms of getting better,” Davidson said. “I say to them every day in practice, every day before games, every time you step on the court is a chance to get better.”

Milford is scheduled to face a tough Laconia team tonight as perhaps its first regular season test; there will be others. The area’s other Division II teams, Souhegan and Hollis Brookline, are both rebuilding with youth and mix of experience. It’s still early. That’s the feeling for Campbell, which has struggled at 0-3. Wilton-Lyndeborough will be competitive, they split four games before the break.

In any event, the preseason is over, followed by a sample of regular season games. Then the holiday tourneys are over. This time it counts, all the way through mid-March.