Derryfield girls basketball comes back to knock off Laconia (video)

MANCHESTER - Courtney Cheetham wasn't worried about her Derryfield School girls basketball team scoring too quickly on its final possession Friday night against Laconia.

With the way the Cougars had played on defense in the second half, Cheetham trusted her team to make another stop with the game on the line.

Tia Ferdinando scored with under 20 seconds to play and Derryfield survived two chances by Laconia to tie or win the game in the final 10 seconds to hold on for a 33-31 win in a Division II matchup of undefeated teams.

"I trust our kids," Cheetham said. "I wanted them to take whatever look they had as early as they could. If it took 10 seconds, it took 10 seconds, if it took 20 seconds, it took 20 seconds. I trusted our defense. We got a lot of stops in the second half. The ball fell in our favor. Tia got hot and that was helpful."

Ferdinando had 10 of her game-high 20 points in the fourth quarter, including two 3-pointers early in the frame that helped Derryfield (13-0) swing momentum. Chloe Bremberg added six points for the Cougars and Ella Laflamme came off the bench to added four.

But it was at the other end where Derryfield turned things around.

Down 23-12 after Laconia's Macy Swormstedt hit a jumper with just over five minutes left in the third quarter, the Cougars regrouped. They closed the third with an 8-0 run to cut the lead to three points, and after the Sachems (11-1) went up 29-23 early in the fourth, Derryfield held them scoreless for almost five more minutes.

"We didn’t hit shots," Laconia coach Jeff Greeley said. "A lot of what we do is in transition, making shots, and then setting up our press. We didn’t do a good job to set that stuff up. They grabbed some momentum at the end. We struggled to make a shot down the stretch."

Swormstedt had 17 points to lead Laconia while Ava Currier had six points and Sam Wylie and Maddie Mousseau had four markers apiece.

The Sachems control most of the first half, getting out to a 19-6 lead midway through the second quarter thanks in part to 10 turnovers by Derryfield in the first 16 minutes.

A 3 by Swormstedt would give Laconia its largest lead of the game with 4:30 to play in the first half, but the Sachems wouldn't score again, as Derryfield added six unanswered points to make it a 19-12 Laconia lead.

Laconia only added four points in the first two minutes of the third, but the Sachems held the Cougars scoreless for almost five minutes to go back up by 11 points. Turnovers started to plague Laconia, as the Sachems had five in the final 2:13 of the quarter, and Derryfield took advantage to cut the lead to 23-20 after three.

Swormstedt made two free throws and a layup to put Laconia up 27-20, but 3s from Ferdinando on back-to-back possessions for Derryfield made it a three-point game again. Another basket by the senior made it a one-point game with just over four minutes to play.

"One of the things that feel is cool about our team is that different people step up at different times," Cheetham said. "It’s figuring out a way to win, because at the end of the day, if you can make winning plays, get on the floor, hustle, rebound the basketball, I think good things can happen."

Emma Sloper tied the game with a free throw with 3:09 remaining and Angie Kenison scored on the Cougars' next possession to give them their first lead since the opening minutes of the game.

Mousseau tied the game at 31 with a little more than a minute remaining and Derryfield worked to find an open shot. Ferdinando got the ball outside the 3-point line and found a lane to the basket to put the Cougars up 33-31.

After Derryfield was called for a foul with 8.7 seconds left, Mousseau had an open look from 3, but her shot was too strong. Ferdinando came down with the rebound but her foot was out of bounds, giving Laconia the ball back with 2.8 seconds still on the clock.

A pass into the lane was broken up by Ferdinando and time expired before either team to gain possession of the ball.

"It lived up to the hype on both sides," Cheetham said. "I thought Laconia played really hard and I thought our kids played really hard. It was a great atmosphere for women’s basketball in the state of New Hampshire."