Pembroke girls basketball moves on to D2 final with win over Pelham

EXETER – The Pembroke Academy girls basketball team hadn’t faced much adversity in rolling through an undefeated season, and that appeared to be the case again through the first half of Wednesday night’s Division II semifinal against Pelham.

That was until top-seeded Pembroke’s 12-point lead evaporated and No. 4 Pelham rallied and closed to within one point midway through the fourth quarter to put Pembroke on upset alert.

Pembroke didn’t cave by ripping off three straight buckets to take back control on its way to a 47-42 victory at Exeter High School.

“We had a good start but we knew (Pelham) was going to fight and they weren’t going to make it an easy second half for us,” Pembroke coach Noah Cummings said. “It gets tight at the end, it gets to one point and some teams can get rattled in those moments. The girls stayed composed and at the end of the day it was them and their mentality to consider themselves championship-level competitors.”

Pembroke (21-0) aims for the program’s second championship at 12 p.m. on Saturday when it faces No. 2 Derryfield (19-2) in the D2 title game at the University of New Hampshire’s Lundholm Gymnasium. Derryfield advanced with a 44-40 win over No. 6 Merrimack Valley (15-6) in Wednesday’s earlier action.

The lone championship for Pembroke came when it beat Lebanon for the 1980 Class I crown. The Spartans lost championship games in 1978 (Milford), 1995 (Souhegan) and more recently to Concord Christian in 2024.

“We hadn't faced many games like this, but we practice situations like that and it makes us confident going into that,” Pembroke senior Kate Stephens said. “Everybody was so supportive. There was still so much time left but we were all confident we’d come out with the win.”

Pelham (16-5) chipped away at its 22-10 halftime deficit by outscoring Pembroke 19-13 in the third quarter. Jess Phillips (10 points) closed out the frame to bring Pelham to within 35-29 entering the fourth.

Pembroke led by six points when Phillips converted a rebound and Harlow Barron followed with a 3-pointer to close the gap to 37-36.

“We’ve been down by 12 before and we’ve come back to win, so we knew we could do it,” Pelham coach Robert Shepard said. “This is a coherent group of girls and they knew they could come back. If we got the ball to bounce differently here or there, who knows.”

Pembroke responded with a 6-0 run that began with a baseline jumper from Ava Strazzeri (11 points). Ann Phillips followed with a drive and Harley Steinmetz gave Pembroke a 43-36 lead with 1:58 remaining.

After Sophia Guinazzo’s steal-and-feed to Grace Riley trimmed the deficit to three points, Stephens (13 points) gave Pembroke a 46-40 lead with a 3-point play. She followed that with a block at the other end of the floor.

“Last year we fell short and the year before that we fell short, so it feels really good to be in this situation again,” Stephens said. “We knew we could pull this out with a win at the end.”

Pembroke owns a 43-36 win over Derryfield but that came in the first game of the season. Cummings knows it’ll be two totally different teams in Saturday’s rematch and he expects a battle.

“We know they’re an excellent team, really well-coached with so many girls that pose a ton of threats,” Cummings said. “It’s going to be a tough one, but our girls are ready to go out there and compete.”