Above the Rim: Pinkerton boys basketball taking the favorite flag

Pete Rosinski didn't want to hear the question.

With the regular season at the halfway point, and with his Pinkerton Academy boys basketball team atop Division I with a 9-1 record, where his Astros now the favorite?

"Well ...," Rosinski said, stretching the word out, before explaining how easy it is for any given team to lose on any given night.

And that's true, as shown in Pinkerton's 10-point loss to Winnacunnet back on Jan. 5. The Astros didn't play well on offense, didn't play well defensively, and a good Warriors team handed them their lone loss of the regular season.

But if Pinkerton is on, and lately it has been, there aren't many teams that can come close.

Of the Astros nine wins, six have been by 20 or more points. They beat Nashua South on opening night by one point, beat Manchester Central by 18 points, and beat Manchester Memorial by 12 points.

What might be most remarkable about the win over the Crusaders wasn't the margin of victory, but that Pinkerton held them to under 70 points.

"I think the division is wide open," Nashua North interim coach Michael Henderson said after the Titans lost to Pinkerton on Jan. 20. "I watched them against Memorial, and I watched them (against North), and they play like that, they've got to be considered No. 1 or 2, and I don't know who No. 2 would be. They're in a flow that has them a little notch about everyone."

Pinkerton may not be as explosive on offense as Memorial, but the Astros average 69.2 points per game. The defense may not be as stingy as Merrimack plays on defense, but it can be confusing to opponents when the Astros are clicking, and they've allowed more than 55 points just twice all season.

"(Basketball) is the most offensive game there is and you've got to play defense all the time, but you've also got to be able to put the ball in," Rosinski said. "It's one of those sports where everybody has to play both ends of the floor, and these guys have done a good job. When a guy is off, we've had guys step up."

Against North last Friday, it was Thomas Romick leading the way. In Monday's win over Londonderry, it was Matthew Rizzo who was the high scorer, and with Brennan Morris out due to illness, other Astros players stepped up to fill the void.

"We’ve been playing really well together as a team," Romick said. "We're getting that lead going. We know we could take on these teams, we just needed to play the way we knew we could."

Pinkerton will look for its 10th win Saturday afternoon in the second of two games against Londonderry.