Adjustments helped Hollis Brookline girls basketball get into D2 final

If the Hollis Brookline High School girls basketball team continued to play the defense it was during the first half of Tuesday's Division II semifinal, it's season likely would have come to an end.

Bob Murphy had watched the Cavaliers struggle in their 2-3 zone to contain Portsmouth's Libby Underwood, so the coach went back to the drawing board to start the second half.

"We started in a 2-3 zone but that was leaving Libby Underwood too open," Murphy said. "We came out in the second half in a triangle-and-two, which is basically a zone but man-to-man on Libby and on (Faith Poirier)."

That left the other three players forming a triangle in the paint, with senior Cassandra Stapelfeld playing just inside the foul line, clogging up the lane. While Portsmouth was able to make a run to start the third quarter, going up 35-32 a little more than midway through, HB eventually settled into the defense.

The Cavs held the Clippers scoreless for over six minutes as they went on an 8-0 run to take the lead. During that stretch, Underwood and Poirier struggled to find open looks, forcing other players to take shots.

"We were letting the other girls shoot and they wouldn't shoot," Murphy said. "That defense seemed to work."

The Clippers went 0 for 10 from the field - including 0 for 7 from 3 - in that span, despite getting five offensive rebounds.

"By taking Stapelfeld, more often than not, and putting her on the nail and clogging up the lanes, leaving a player by herself, (she) needs to make shots or at least get into dribble penetration and have the same result," Portsmouth coach Tim Hopley said. "By doing that, it makes the post-entry passing lanes a lot smaller. We were able to go high-low or low-high and get good looks and score. By adding that extra person in the mix, it took that away."

But it also forced the Clippers to do things that they weren't accustomed to doing. After Underwood made it a three-point game, Hopley used a timeout with 4:08 to play to set up a three-quarter court press.

The pressure worked, as on two consecutive possessions, Portsmouth forced a turnover and got a transition basket from Underwood, taking a 43-42 lead with 3:39 to go.

Again, it was time for the Cavs to adjust, and they did.

"We needed to flood the middle instead of trying to come up the outside," Murphy said. "We had Cassandra flash to the middle and that broke it."

Stapelfeld hit a pair of free throws and Brodie Kelley hit another and added a basket to put HB ahead 47-43.

"It definitely caught us by surprise and it was a bit scary," Stapelfeld said. "But then I think we calmed down. Coach called a timeout and said we had to send someone to the middle. We got it over halfcourt, we settled down and passed the ball around and I think we were good."

HB went 8 for 8 from the line over the final minute to turn a two-possession game into what looked like an easy win.

And for the Cavs, it means the opportunity to play for the first title in the program's history on Friday at 7 p.m. They'll take on No. 1 Lebanon, who beat HB during the regular season.

"I'm so happy for those kids because they deserved this," Murphy said. "These guys have been working hard since the end of last season. You go through summer ball and fall ball and then you have a long season. All these kids have made a significant effort to be at practice six days a week. We played some tough teams, we had a bad game during the season, but other than that, I was happy with everything."