Gilford girls basketball holds off Laconia to win D3 championship (video)

MANCHESTER - The high school girls basketball teams from Gilford and Laconia have played so much over the last two seasons, they likely know everything about each other, perhaps even on down to the preferred pregame meal.

Going into Saturday's Division III championship game at Southern New Hampshire University, Gilford coach Rick Forge knew he had to find a wrinkle, and his Golden Eagles had to use at it the right time.

With No. 2 Gilford clinging to a lead in the second half, Forge switched up his team's offense, and after turning the ball over on five consecutive trips in the fourth quarter, the Eagles capitalized.

Cassidy Bartlett's backdoor pass to Jordan Dean led to what proved to be the game-winning basket, moments after No. 4 Laconia had tied the game, and Stevie Orton hit two free throws with 15 seconds left to lock up Gilford's 42-38 win over the Sachems.

It's Gilford's second championship in program history, and first since 2009, after losing in the title game a year ago. And it was the eighth time the Eagles and Sachems had played since the start of last season.

"You had throw one wrinkle into it," Forge said. "Throw a wrinkle in that you haven't shown in the other three times you played this year, and the first three times we played, we ran pretty much a motion offense with a lot of cross screening.

"(Saturday) we did run that, but late in the second half, we ran a four-high (offense) and went backdoor. We got a couple of backdoor baskets and I thought that was huge. It's just little things like that."

Orton finished with 11 points and nine rebounds and Brooke Beaudet added 11 points, including 3 of 7 from 3, and seven rebounds to lead the Eagles (22-0). Bartlett added seven points, five boards and four assists, as the senior guard, along with Dean and Madison Harris, played almost all of the fourth quarter with four fouls.

"I think comes with that experience, with being a veteran," Bartlett said of none of the three fouling out. "Last year, we didn't know what we were coming into because we'd never been here before. We felt like we needed to be back here. We never gave up and knew we needed to be back here for redemption."

Laconia (18-4) got a big game from Helen Tautkus, who finished with 15 points and seven rebounds, but the junior was just 1 of 7 at the free throw line. As a team, the Sachems shot 41.2 percent at the line.

"The girls battled for 32 minutes," Laconia coach Jeff Greeley said. "Unfortunately, we didn't make some free throws, and in the end, it came down to a one-possession game. Those missed free throws throughout really hurt our chances. The effort was there all night, but it feels like we kind of beat ourselves."

Natalie Compton added nine points for Laconia and Kailey Nute chipped in with eight, including a 3-pointer early in the game that helped the Sachems take a 9-2 lead in the first quarter.

Gilford used a timeout and responded with a 12-0 run to go up 14-9, but a basket by Compton and another 3 from Nute tied the game at 14 after one. The teams battled back and forth in the second, as the lead changed six times, and the Eagles took a 26-24 lead into the break.

The third quarter started with much of the same, as Laconia tied it twice before taking a 28-27 lead on two free throws by Calyce Swormstedt. But Gilford answered with a 7-0 run, which included a layup and a 3 by Beaudet, to give the Eagles their biggest lead, 34-28.

Again, the Sachems came back, getting two baskets from Tautkus and a tying layup from Nute to make it 34-34 going into the fourth.

But when Gilford switched its offense, it started to struggle in the halfcourt, turning the ball over on five straight possessions. Laconia wasn't able to take advantage, though, shooting 2 of 10 from the field and 0 of 4 from the line in the quarter while turning the ball over six times.

"It's very uncharacteristic of us all year long," Greeley said. "Those are the situations that we usually capitalized on. Against good opponents, those situations are hard to capitalize on."

Despite that, a putback by Tautkus tied the game at 38 with 1:13 left to play, but on the ensuing possession, Bartlett found Dean cutting to the basket behind the defense to give Gilford the lead.

After a timeout, Laconia turned the ball over and was forced to start fouling. But the Sachems had only committed four in the half, allowing Gilford to run off another 20 seconds before Orton went to the line to ice the game.

"It's pretty special," Forge said. "This is a special group of kids. To run the table this year, to come up with 25 wins, you can't ask for anything better.

"It was a gutsy effort by both clubs. I thought defenses were good for both teams. We forced each other to do things we normally don't do. It was a great effort by both teams. It came down to one possession."