Londonderry reaches the top with win over Concord Christian in D1 girls basketball final (video)

DURHAM - Over the course of four years, the seniors on the Londonderry High School girls basketball team had gone a step further than the season before.

Going into Saturday's Division I championship game against Concord Christian, there was only one more step for the Lancers to take, and they took it.

No. 3 Londonderry jumped out to an early lead, withstood a run by the top-seeded Kingsmen, and then poured it on in the second half to roll to a 56-38 win over Concord Christian to win the D1 title at the University of New Hampshire's Lundholm Gymnasium.

It's the Lancers first title since winning the second of back-to-back D1 championships in 2015, and the program's fourth overall in 14 appearances.

“Every year, we have one step up,” Londonderry coach Jon Doherty said. “These girls are battle tested. There’s a reason we played a bunch of out-of-state games this year. I wanted these big games to feel like normal games and I think it worked.”

Londonderry (19-3) picked up four wins during the regular season over teams from out-of-state, including Wachusett, which also won the D1 title in Massachusetts on Saturday. But the Lancers also dropped games to Bedford (twice) and Concord Christian to end up a the three seed in the postseason.

After dispatching the Bulldogs in the semifinal on Monday, Londonderry leaned on its experience having played in last season's title game going against the Kingsmen (20-2) for a second time.

“I think it definitely helps because we knew nothing was going to be easy, nothing was given to us,” Londonderry senior Sammie Sullivan said. “We were the underdogs in this situation, but I feel like we played as a team and we knew if we worked together, we trusted each other, we could win.”

Sullivan finished with 16 points, nine rebounds, four assists and four blocks for the Lancers while senior Brooke Eacrett had a game-high 20 points, including 4 of 9 from 3, to go with five rebounds. Senior Brooke Wilson added five points and led the team with 10 rebounds and Gemma Murray had 11 points and boards, as Londonderry held a 37-25 advantage on the glass.

Defensively, the Lancers focused on getting the Kingsmen off the 3-point line, and aside from a two-minute stretch in the first half, when Concord Christian hit four of its six 3s, Londonderry was successful.

“(Sullivan) was supposed to stay in the middle (of the defense) to kind of be that almost permanent help,” Doherty said. “We wanted to run them off the 3-point line and try to get them to take pullup jump shots, floaters, things like that. You’re coming downhill and you see Sam in the middle. She’s not a small kid.”

Emma Smith had 13 points, five rebounds and three assists for Concord Christian and Abby Lash came off the bench to add 11 points, including three 3-pointers. But the Kingsmen shot just 28.6 percent from the field and attempted just seven free throws, making four.

“We get some shots at the line like we typically do, maybe it’s a little bit different,” Concord Christian coach Matt Smith said. “We own some of that, too. As we’re driving, we’re getting contact, but we have to adjust to how the game is being called. We need to go up stronger and fight through people to force the issue. We did it some, but not enough.”

After Londonderry jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the first quarter, Concord Christian answered with a 9-2 run to make it a one-point game, 12-11, going into the second. A 3 by Brynn Vaillant to open the second game the Kingsmen a 14-12 lead, but it would be short-lived.

Eacrett answered for Londonderry to put the Lancers back in front and Concord Christian eventually tied the game at 17 with 3:21 to play in the half. Sullivan broke the tie with a 3, and with time winding down, Eacrett made a layup to give the Lancers a 22-17 lead at the break.

Londonderry continued that run into the third, with another 3-pointer from Eacrett and a basket by Wilson to make it a 10-point game. Both offenses went quiet for a while until Eacrett hit from 3 again, and after a basket by Lash, Eacrett hit her third 3 of the quarter to put the Lancers up 33-19.

“Once I started hitting, I was just like, I’ve got to keep going, so that’s what I did,” Eacrett said. “We knew that we couldn’t let up, we knew we had to keep our foot on the gas, and that’s what we just did.”

Murray added another 3 moments later, and after holding the Kingsmen to just four points in the third, Londonderry took a 40-21 lead into the fourth quarter.

“We had a rough third quarter,” Matt Smith said. “Some of the things that we had talked about at halftime, we came out and we didn’t execute. When you do that, it usually starts to turn the other way.”