Londonderry girls basketball beats Winnacunnet to win second D1 title in a row
MANCHESTER - Nick Theos knew that if the Londonderry High School girls basketball team was going to win its second straight championship, it was going to have to find a way to disrupt Winnacunnet's offense.
After watching film, the Lancers saw that the best way to slow down the Warriors was from the inside out.
No. 2 Londonderry clogged the paint around Winnacunnet's Meg Knollmeyer, causing a domino effect that threw off what the No. 9 Warriors wanted to do. The Lancers then overcame their own mistakes on offense and led from start to finish Friday night, beating Winnacunnet 48-33 in the Division I title game at Southern New Hampshire University.
Tara Burke led the way for Londonderry (20-2) with 11 points and six rebounds, while Kelsey Coffey and Jenna Conroy each had eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers apiece. Jaclyn Luckhardt added seven points and 11 rebounds, as the Lancers outrebounded Winnacunnet 29-20.
But it was the defense that led the way, holding the Warriors (14-8) to 30.6 percent shooting from the field, including 4 of 16 in the second half.
"We were going to try our best to not let (Knollmeyer) get going," Theos said. "If you let her get comfortable any place inside the (paint) she kills you. And then the 3-point shooters, if she gets comfortable, they're going to kill you.
"If you let them get comfortable in that offense, that flex that they run is so good. They set good screens, if they start rolling in that, the only thing you have to do is foul them. We did a good job of not allowing them to get into that. The kids did a really good job with that."
Knollmeyer finished with a team-high 11 points and seven rebounds, but Burke, Kate Balcom and Noelle Lambert took turns in the middle of the Lancers' zone stifling the Warriors junior. With the middle clogged up, Winnacunnet struggled to shoot against Londonderry's perimeter defense, going 4 of 13 from behind the 3-point line.
"Their defense definitely got in the heads of our offense," Winnacunnet coach Cassie Turcotte said. "We couldn't get a rhythm going. Every time we started going for a bit of a run, something would happen. A travel, a turnover, a foul call, and we just couldn't get a rhythm going."
Londonderry got out to an 8-0 midway through the first quarter before Winnacunnet got on the board. The Warriors closed the quarter on an 8-2, getting two baskets from Knollmeyer, to make it a two-point game.
It was still a two-point lead for Londonderry, 15-13, following a 3-pointer by Winnacunnet's Molly Britton, and after the Lancers turned over the ball, the Warriors looked to tie it or take their first lead.
Winnacunnet grabbed two offensive rebounds on the possession, but missed three shots and eventually committed a foul on the third. Londonderry took advantage, going on a 12-2 run to go ahead 27-15. A 3-pointer by Emily Britton with 46 seconds left in the first half made it a nine-point game at halftime.
"I kept telling them, they're going to come back, they're going to get turnovers," Theos said. "They add the pressure. They're so well-coached by Cassie that you know they're going to get a turnover, they're going to get a basket, they're going to knock down a 3, and then it goes from nine down to four. You're going 'what happened,' but that's how they want to play. They make you pay for mistakes. Getting the momentum back was huge."
While that had been the case for the Warriors during their surprising tournament run, it wasn't on Friday.
"That's something we've taken advantage of, that the wind starts blowing in our direction, and we couldn't take advantage of that," Turcotte said. "Every single time we got momentum, we had a hiccup. We narrowed the lead and then all of a sudden, we didn't play defense on the girl with the basketball. She then gets a standing shot. We weren't contesting shots and Londonderry is a very good shooting team with their feet set and we weren't finding shooters."
Londonderry led by 14 points after a 3-pointer by Conroy early in the fourth quarter, but Winnacunnet came back to cut the lead to nine on two free throws by Knollmeyer and a 3 from Molly Britton. Theso called a timeout right away.
"Winnacunnet lives off those runs," he said. "Defensively, we started getting turnovers again. We didn't play great down the stretch, we made some mistakes ourselves, but defensively we stepped up. We got turnovers, we didn't allow their shooters to get open looks."
The Lancers held Winnacunnet to just four points over the game's final six minutes to win the program's third championship. And Londonderry was able to do it despite losing Ashley Berube, the team's leading scorer, in the first playoff game.
"Getting the kids to believe was difficult," Theos said. "We sat down and said we don't have much of a choice. We pressed more, played harder defense and shot better from the outside. We weren't going to be able to pound it inside to Ashley. Luckily we were deep enough."
