Kearsarge holds off Windham to reach D2 girls basketball title game

MANCHESTER – The Windham High School girls basketball team didn’t lose Monday’s game when Clairee Putnam’s last-second 3-pointer missed its mark.

The Jaguars lost the game at the free throw line.

No. 9 Windham shot just 42 percent from the line, missing 14 free throws, and fell to No. 5 Kearsarge 42-40 in the Division II semifinal at Southern New Hampshire University. Kearsarge will now face No. 6 Souhegan in the title game on Friday at 7 p.m. at SNHU.

“This time of year, it comes down to the little things,” Windham coach Joe Mason said. “Do the small things and big things happen and (Monday) we didn’t do enough of the small things.”

Kearsarge (17-4) wasn’t much better at the line, shooting 50 percent, but the Cougars shot 58 percent from the field and turned the ball over just four times in the second half.

Morgan Church led Kearsarge with 15 points before leaving with appeared to be a left knee injury late in the game, while Anna Cahill, after not playing in the first half, came off the bench to score 13 points, 10 of which came in the third quarter when Kearsarge took the lead.

“She gets to the basket and she did some things,” Kearsarge coach Robert Bennet said of Cahill. “That’s what we needed. It’s someone different for us all year long. We’re not big and we’re not the most skilled team, but they play together and they play hard. Sometimes that’s enough to overcome things.”

Windham (15-6) got 17 points from Bernadette Connors, who hit three 3-pointers, and Kerry White added 10 points. The Jaguars took a 15-13 lead at halftime, and were still up two when a layup by Cahill tied the game at 21 midway through the third.

That was the second of two layups for the sophomore, who came into the game after Katie Levesque picked up her third foul with 7:22 remaining in the quarter. Molly Giles was also on the bench with three fouls, and Margaret Doheny would soon follow 40 seconds later.

Cahill added a 3-pointer to give Kearsarge the lead, but Connors answered to tie the game again. Baskets by Doheny and Church put the Cougars up four, their largest lead to that point, and after Kelsey Schiebel hit two free throws for Windham, Cahill closed the quarter with another 3 to make it 31-26.

The Cougars appeared to be in control of the game in the fourth, going up 38-31 with 4:37 to play. Neither team would score for almost three minutes, when a 3 by Putnam cut Kearsarge’s lead to four points.

It was still a four-point game, 41-37, when Connors nailed a 3 with 26 seconds left to pull the Jaguars within in one.

Eliza Henley made the second of two free throws for Kearsarge with 13 seconds left, giving Windham one more chance.

Putname got a clean look at a 3, but hit the back of the rim and came off. Giles grabbed the rebound and time ran out.

“The last play was for any good look,” Mason said. “Clairee shots 47 percent from the 3-point line. When you have your best 3-point shooter take the last shot, you really can’t complain. Could we have been more patient? Probably, but at the end of the day, I have no problem with that shot. The rebound was there to be taken. We box out, maybe we get it.”

Bennett instructed his team to guard against the 3 and risk the chance that Windham would tie the game with a shot inside the arc.

“Let’s defend for a 3 and play for overtime and take our chances,” he said. “They got a pretty good look and we got a big rebound.”

Kearsarge returns to the final for the first time since 2006, when the Cougars lost to Oyster River.