Bishop Guertin girls basketball comes back in second half to beat Merrimack in D1 quarterfinal

MERRIMACK - The Bishop Guertin High School girls basketball team put together a schedule that featured some tough out-of-state competition for moments like Saturday night.

Down for a good part of the first half on the road in a tough gym to play at in the playoffs, the Cardinals put that preparation to good use.

No. 5 Bishop Guertin buckled down defensively in the third quarter and converted turnovers into points for a 46-33 win over No. 4 Merrimack in the Division I quarterfinals. The Cardinals move on to the semifinals, where they will face No. 1 Bedford on Thursday night at Southern New Hampshire University.

"They were giving us everything we could handle," Bishop Guertin coach Brad Kreick said. "That’s exactly what we told the kids at halftime, we’ve played the schedule we played exactly for this reason. In the second half of a tough game, on the road in a tough environment, you guys are going to know how to do get it done. They got it done."

The Cardinals (15-5) opened the second half with a 10-3 run to take a 10-point lead but Merrimack was able to stay within striking distance until the final two minutes. With the Tomahawks forced to foul, Bishop Guertin went 8 for 8 from the free throw line, including 4 of 4 by Addison Smith.

Smith came off the bench to score 12 points and Hannah Muchmore also had 12 points for Bishop Guertin, who played without guard Erin Carney. Caroline Hoffer was also in double figures for the Cardinals with 11 points.

For Merrimack, Theresa Twardosky had all eight of her points in the first half and Sabrina Johnson had all eight of her's in the second, while Jolie Jacoby added six points.

"(Merrimack played) incredibly hard and incredibly tough, with a lot of passion for our program," Merrimack coach Courtney Cheetham said. "I think we made it pretty difficult on them, but unfortunately that wasn’t enough. Sometimes that happens."

After falling behind 8-4 in the first quarter, the Tomahawks ended the frame on a run to take a 9-8 lead into the second. Merrimack led 15-12, but Bishop Guertin ended the first half with a 6-0 run to go up 18-15 at the break.

"We were patient on offense," Cheetham said. "We were able to possess the basketball, maintain our dribble, make the right pass and make some shots. Our freshman stepped up big in the first half and hit a couple of shots that made them adjust and once they made some adjustment, we had more difficulty getting into a flow offensively."

Bishop Guertin's adjustments helped lead to six Merrimack turnovers in the third quarter, but with 5.5 seconds left on the clock, a three-point play by Johnson cut the lead to 28-21 going into the fourth.

The Cardinals were able to get the lead up to 11 points early in the fourth, but back-to-back baskets by Johnson made it 34-27 Bishop Guertin with 5:38 to play, but Merrimack would go scoreless for almost four minutes after that.

"I didn’t think we were playing poorly in the first half, they just played great defense and made everything really hard for us," Kreick said. "We did a better job in the second half. We were able to get to the rim better and were able to get out in our press game and get turnovers. That’s a very good basketball team we just beat. That’s a game that teams with less poise don’t win."