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# Manchester Memorial girls basketball stays alive with comeback win over Manchester Central in OT (video)
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/manchester-memorial-girls-basketball-stays-alive-with-comeback-win-over-manchester-central-in-ot-video/
- Published: 2021-03-03T13:00:15.000Z
- Updated: 2021-03-03T13:00:15.000Z
- Description: BEDFORD - There were 4.2 seconds remaining in the season for the Manchester Memorial High School girls basketball team, unless a half-dozen things went the Crusaders way. But in those final moments Tuesday night against Manchester Central, everything broke Memorial's way. Jess Carrier made three fre
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division I, girls basketball, Manchester Central, Manchester Memorial, playoffs, slider, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

BEDFORD - There were 4.2 seconds remaining in the season for the Manchester Memorial High School girls basketball team, unless a half-dozen things went the Crusaders way.

But in those final moments Tuesday night against Manchester Central, everything broke Memorial's way.

Jess Carrier made three free throws with five-tenths of a second left on the clock to force overtime and the Crusaders carried the momentum into the extra session, getting past the Little Green, 51-44, in a Division I Round One playoff game played at Bedford High School.

Memorial will return to Bedford on Friday, where the Crusaders will face the Bulldogs in a preliminary-round game.

Carrier scored all of her game-high 13 points in the fourth quarter and overtime while Ryan Moran had a career-high 12 points and Emma Rossi chipped in with nine points, including a 3 to open the scoring in OT for Memorial. Central (6-7) got 12 points from Emily Hobausz and 10 points from Erin Flurey.

"Guts, guts, and more guts," Memorial coach Greg Cotreau said. "We were dead to rights. It’s a credit to them, we have some resiliency on this team."

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/bc/58/bc5866d0-9fd9-4113-b959-670d6f16471d/content/images/www-nh-highschoolsports-com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/jmmmmcgbball030221-m11c14c33-2wm.jpg)

Manchester Memorial's Elizabeth Barrientos goes up for a basket while Manchester Central's McKenna Schneiderman defends.

Outside of a four-minute stretch to start the second quarter, the Crusaders (8-7) never had the lead in regulation and they trailed by eight, 32-24, going into the fourth quarter. Memorial struggled to shoot from everywhere on the floor, going the first 31-plus minutes of the game without a 3-pointer.

Free throw shooting wasn't much better, including a sequence in the third quarter where Carrier missed two free throws, got her own rebound and was fouled, and missed those two as well.

"It was gone," the senior said of those misses when she went to the line at the end of regulation. "I had to focus and I knew I had to make them to keep the season going."

It took a lot for Memorial to be in that position.

The Crusaders outscored the Little Green, 7-1, over the first 5:33 of the fourth quarter to tie the game at 33, but Central countered with a 5-1 run to lead 38-34 with just under a minute remaining.

Flurey missed the back end of a one-and-one and Memorial got the rebound, but turned the ball over before getting a shot off and Carrier picked up her fourth foul with 27.7 seconds left. But Flurey missed the front end of a one-and-one and the Crusaders quickly made it a one-point game, as Erin McCoy nailed a 3-pointer - the team's first of the game - with 14 seconds to play.

Memorial fouled again, sending Flurey to the line for two shots and the senior missed the first and made the second to put the Little Green up two. A bad inbounds pass was stolen by Central's Jailyn Johnson, and for a moment, the Crusaders seemed unsure of what to do.

Finally, Elizabeth Barrientos fouled Reeham Imam, but six seconds had run off the clock. Imam made the second of two free throws to make it 40-37 Central, and this time, inbounds pass went to halfcourt and Memorial took a timeout with 3.4 to play.

"Ciara Banks is one who makes amazing passes at critical times in games," Cotreau said. "The pressure doesn’t get to her. That allowed us to get past halfcourt to call a timeout to execute the play we really wanted to run. We knew with 4.2 seconds left, we weren’t going to be able to get a play off, so we needed to trust that we could make that pass.

"We needed to trust that Elizabeth could catch that pass and that we could call the timeout. We knew that if those three things could work, this play we ran at the end, we had run it two other times and we’d been successful in it every time."

But it didn't work the way Memorial had drawn it up.

"The design was for, usually it’s Madison Pepra-Omani coming off that curl cut," Cotreau said. "We knew that they were probably going to put Fluery on Madison, so she wouldn’t get a good look. Really, it was designed for Emma Rossi to take that shot, because she’s another kid who as good 3-point range for us. The pass got deflected, some how Jess was in the right place at the right time."

Carrier knew there wasn't enough time to do anything but shoot, and she was bumped by Hobausz as she put up a desperation shot.

"We had run that play twice, and it worked, but it was never meant to go to me," she said. "It was supposed to go to our best shooters. It just happened and I knew, we had four seconds left, and I had to shoot it. That’s all I did."

After Carrier sank all three free throws to force overtime, Cotreau could see the momentum building on the sideline, and sure enough, Memorial's offense woke up. Rossi hit a 3, and after a steal, Moran scored to give the Crusaders a 45-40 lead.

A three-point play and a transition layup by Carrier made it 50-43 in the final minute of overtime, wrapping up an improbable win for Memorial.

"We just needed that little momentum," Carrier said. "The free throws got it for us. I know our team has a lot of fight and we weren’t going to give up until it was over."