Sports

NHTI Basketball Team Makes Yankee Small College Conference 2023 Playoffs

The team is returning to the playoffs after beating Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in its last regular season game.

The Lynx basketball team is headed to the playoffs again — this time as the No. 1 seed of the Yankee Small College Conference.
The Lynx basketball team is headed to the playoffs again — this time as the No. 1 seed of the Yankee Small College Conference. (NHTI)

CONCORD, NH — NHTI, Concord’s community college, and its basketball team, are heading to the playoffs again.

The Lynx beat Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences' team last weekend and will play the team again on Saturday. The team plays at 1 p.m. The Lynx was 11-3, locking in the first seed. Albany is ranked eighth. The winner will head to the final four in Maine on March 4.

Lynx Head Coach Irv Harris is in his first season coaching the team and had a group of five returning players from the 2021-2022 team, which helped build everyone’s confidence. Four of the five returning players were New Hampshire natives — Jackson Ruelke of Belmont, Anthony Gauthier from Jaffrey, Kevin Newton-Delgado of Hopkinton, and Tyler Lovely from Freemont. A fifth player, James Jones Jr., is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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“On and off the court, this Lynx team shows the chemistry and comradery that separates good teams from great ones,” the school said. “Players spend almost every moment together, from the classroom to the court and common rooms. Most also take part in NHTI’s work-study program, helping put on other athletic events such as broadcasts for the women’s games.”

During the past decade, NHTI “has attracted some of the best basketball players in New Hampshire and, in 2020, was the first men’s collegiate basketball team from New Hampshire to win a national championship,” the school noted.

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Saturday’s game will be live-streamed on the athletics department’s YouTube channel.

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