Bench helps lead Bishop Guertin girls basketball past Merrimack

NASHUA - Depth is important to any team, and the Bishop Guertin High School girls basketball team learned that firsthand Friday night.

With three starters on the bench in foul trouble, and another out with an injury, the Cardinals looked to junior Meghan Cramb and a host of role players to shoulder the load against Merrimack.

After a tough start, Bishop Guertin took control of the game in the third quarter and pulled away late for a 50-34 win over the Tomahawks in Division I action.

Cramb finished with a game-high 13 points, including a basket as the third quarter came to an end that gave Bishop Guertin a five-point lead and seemed to swing momentum the Cardinals' way. Meagan Morelli came off the bench to scored eight points while Caroline Hoffer battled foul trouble to also score eight.

Bishop Guertin (4-1) got 15 points from its bench, as Hoffer, Marie Laplante and Abbi Field all sat for most of the third quarter with three or four fouls. The Cardinals were also without Molly Dee, who missed the game with a foot injury.

"We've been preaching that it’s going to take nine or 10 kids, and (Friday) is a good example of players not having played huge minutes for us stepping up and playing a huge rule for us," Bishop Guertin coach Brad Kreick said. "It was a funny game, the flow was a little weird.

"It wasn't a 16-point game. We pulled away just a hair in the middle of the fourth quarter. You look up midway through the fourth and it's a seven-point game and you're not out of the woods yet."

The Cardinals wouldn't have been had it not been for their free throw shooting, which wasn't good in the first half. Bishop Guertin was just 3 for 8 from the line in the first half, but went 9 of 10 in the final 2:53 of the game.

"It was slightly chaotic in the first quarter and then it settled down," Merrimack coach Courtney Cheetham said. "At the end, we just hit a wall. I think it was more like a five- or six-point game. It didn't feel like there was a good flow and we do better when we're at a fast pace."

Abby Yuan and Jolie Jacoby led the Tomahawks (2-4) with 10 points apiece, while three other players had four each.

Merrimack started fast, taking a 10-5 lead on a basket by Lauren Dubois with 3:23 left in the first quarter. But Bishop Guertin chipped away at the lead, while holding the Tomahawks scoreless. A 12-0 run by the Cardinals gave them a 17-10 lead early in the second and they took a 24-20 advantage into halftime.

The Tomahawks came out strong in the second half, opening with a 6-0 run to take a 26-24 lead with 6:17 left in the quarter. A free throw by Cramb two minutes later cut the lead in half, but neither team could score for almost two minutes, until a free throw by Hoffer tied the game.

Merrimack retook the lead, 28-26, on a putback by Sabrina Johnson, but the Cardinals closed the quarter with a 7-0 run, highlighted by Cramb's last-second basket.

Bishop Guertin then outscored Merrimack 17-6 in the fourth quarter, including 9-0 run from the free throw line to end the game.

"The Merrimack kids played so hard and Courtney is doing such a great job with those kids," Kreick said. "We've got to figure out a way to turn the light on and play from the opening tip the way we seem to play once the kids have broken a sweat."