Big second half run lifts Merrimack girls basketball to win against Goffstown (video)

MERRIMACK - Michael Soucy has seen enough during his short time coaching the Merrimack High School girls basketball team to know that the Tomahawks aren't ever really out of a game.

So when Goffstown started the second half of Thursday's game with a run to take a five-point lead, the Merrimack coach knew there'd be a response from his team.

And there was immediately, as Makenna Desfosses hit the first of her three 3-pointers in the third quarter to start a 17-0 run for the Tomahawks. Overall, Merrimack outscored Goffstown 25-3 over a nearly eight-minute stretch in the second half on the way to a 61-42 win in a Division I contest.

Desfosses finished with a team-high 15 points, 13 of which came in the third quarter, and Theresa Twardosky was also in double figures with 12 points as nine players scored for the Tomahawks (4-0). Samantha Page also had nine points, including 5 of 6 at the free throw line, and Riley Crampton and Shannon Sadhwani added eight markers apiece.

"That’s my team," Soucy said. "There is no mystery to it. They have so much grit and determination, it doesn’t matter what we’re down or up, we continue to fight for 32 minutes and we’ll see what the score is at the end."

So far this season, Merrimack has been on the winning end, having also won three games at the Chick-Fil-A Holiday Tournament last month to give the Tomahawks seven wins in seven games. Soucy, who is also the Merrimack Athletic Director, took over as the team's head coach about a month before the start of tryouts.

Goffstown (3-2) got 21 points from senior Kelly Walsh, who broke the school's all-time scoring record of 1,396 points on a pair of free throws in the first quarter.

"She puts so much work in in practice, and outside of practice," Goffstown coach Steve Largy said. "She’s very devoted to what she’s doing on the court. She sets the pace in terms of the expectation for the program.

"Not her best night, and she would say that. She doesn’t really think about the numbers or the records. She’s focused on our team performance. That’s what being a leader is about and she is every bit of that."

After Walsh scored 32 and 38 points, respectively, in the Grizzlies' previous two games, the Tomahawks came in with the game plan of trying to keep her from getting the ball.

"We did a good job containing her, but we didn’t do a good job of shadowing her," Soucy said. "I didn’t want her to catch the ball. When she did, I’ve got such good defenders. I’ve got really good on-ball defenders and she had to work for everything she got. It’s a credit to those kids who defended her."

The teams traded baskets throughout the first half, with Merrimack taking a 25-21 lead into halftime. Goffstown came out quick in the third quarter, as back-to-back 3s by Emma Strong (eight points) and Walsh put the Grizzlies up 27-25.

Merrimack tied it on a basket by Desfosses, but two free throws by Shannon Gifford and another 3 from Walsh made it 32-27 with 4:22 left in the third.

But moments after Walsh's 3, Desfosses answered with one from well beyond the 3-point line, and after a putback by Gillian Waller, the Merrimack senior hit another 3 from the opposite wing to give the Tomahawks a 35-32 lead.

"Makenna Desfosses had a great game for them and that answer was huge," Largy said. "If they don’t get that shot, and it was a gutsy shot, a really deep 3 … if we get a stop there, we get that rebound, who knows? It could have swung the other way. They stayed together and you have to give them a lot of credit."

Twardosky and Desfosses each added a 3 to give Merrimack a 44-32 lead before a layup by Walsh to end the quarter got Goffstown back within 10 going into the fourth. But the Tomahawks opened the quarter by outscoring the Grizzlies 9-1 to go up 53-35 with 4:02 remaining.

"I think we wore them out a little bit (with the press)," Soucy said. "It’s not only a physical thing, it’s a mental thing. You get fatigued that way and we’re so used to playing that style, so we can play through it. I’ve got really good players that do the right things."