Pelham boys basketball coach Todd Kress is very superstitious about his courtside attire.

While his team is winning, Kress will continue to wear the same outfit to every game.

He also eats the same foods and even styles his facial hair in a certain way.

In fact, his superstition is incorporated into most every aspect of his life, both on and off the court.

Once the Pythons suffer a defeat, however, everything changes.

“I tell the kids if it works, don’t try to fix it. They get a kick out of it, and some of them even will wear different types of socks and stuff like that. It’s kind of a Pelham thing we do,” said Kress.

“After we lose, the kids always say ‘Oh, you’re going to have to get a new outfit,’ and I say, ‘Hey, if you guys keep losing, I’m going gonna go broke’.”

Kress’ routine wasn’t enough this season. For the first time in four years, the team’s final game wasn’t for a state championship.

On Sunday, March 4, the defending state champs lost in the quarterfinals of the Class I tournament to Hanover High School, 61-56, in front of a packed Lundholm Gymnasium at the University of New Hampshire in Durham.

The Pythons entered the playoffs as the No. 2 seed after winning six of their last seven to finish the regular season 14-4. All four losses came on the road.

After defeating Merrimack Valley, 57-48, in the preliminary round, Pelham fell behind early against Hanover. The Pythons were 7-for-39 from the field in the first half, yet they trailed by only nine points, 29-20, at the break.

Starting center Kris Fournier contributed eight points during a 14-4 run that opened the second half as the locals took a 34-33 lead.

But Hanover responded, taking a 44-38 edge into the final quarter and holding off another late Pelham push to secure the victory.

“The other team came back and made a couple hoops, and we didn’t react well to that at all,” said Kress. “We just didn’t look like an experienced team out there.”

Hanover coach Tim Winslow said the key to the victory was not being intimidated by Pelham’s past success and holding off its runs.

“Pelham is not as strong as they were last year, and they’ve kind of come down into the pack, and I think we’ve kind of gone up a little bit,” said Winslow, whose team lost to Bow in last year’s quarterfinals. “They’re the defending state champions, but when we ran our offense and made them play longer defensive stretches and really earn it, I think they struggled.”

In the loss, sophomore Justin Hojlo, 19 points, and junior Ricky Costa, 16 points, led Pelham in scoring.

Fournier, who contributed 10 points, five rebounds, and some timely blocks, fouled out midway through the fourth.

“Kris all year has been the kid that we’ve been able to accept the fouls and tonight, really for the first time all year, we really needed him to score, and not having him in the game the last five minutes, certainly on the boards, I think really hurt us,” said Kress.