Podcast: Recapping a week of upsets and statement games in January

Jay Jones helped Cushing take down Newman at TD Garden on Saturday. (Ethan Fuller/NEBJ)

We’re in the trenches of the winter basketball season and it feels like a significant storyline develops almost every day.

Last week, Steve Hewitt and Ethan Fuller attended the headlining prep games of the Andrew Lawson Invitational at TD Garden. They watched the Tabor girls assert themselves as a powerhouse with a convincing win against Dexter Southfield. Soon after, the Cushing boys secured their statement win of the season by defeating Newman in a back-and-forth thriller.

Those weren’t the only big games. Earlier that day, the Phillips Exeter boys shocked many by defeating Class AAA stalwart New Hampton. That was just one of many notable results in both prep and MIAA basketball.

On Friday, the MIAA also released its first update for the power rankings that determine state tournament seeding — an immediate topic of discussion.

Steve and Ethan unpack all of their observations and more.

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Highlights

What were your impressions seeing Tabor beat Dexter Southfield at TD Garden?

Ethan: “(The Seawolves) kind of did their thing. The big court really served them well because they just have so many players who can handle the ball, run really fast, are just kind of large players for their archetype. Ava Black was awesome — started with a literal NBA range three pointer and had 17 points. Just balled out. … So yeah, Tabor was kind of in control of this one, but both sides had good players. It was fun.”

What was your reaction to seeing Phillips Exeter defeat New Hampton on Saturday?

Steve: “A shocking result — let’s be blunt. Exeter beats New Hampton 66-45. … Exeter went on kind of a flurry down the stretch, as the game kind of sped up a little bit as New Hampton was trying to come back, but unbelievable effort to win for Exeter and just shocking. I got a lot of texts from coaches around NEPSAC being like, ‘What the heck happened?'”

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