Pinkerton boys basketball holds off Windham (video)

DERRY - For all the points and rebounds Brady Sullivan had Tuesday night for the Pinkerton Academy boys basketball, the most important stat might have been a zero.

Locked in a back-and-forth battle through one quarter with Windham, the Astros made a defensive switch to put Sullivan on Jaguars big man Sam Roidoulis.

After scoring a dozen points through the first eight minutes, Roidoulis didn't score in the second quarter, and Pinkerton was able to get into its transition game to build up a lead it wouldn't relinquish on the way to a 74-67 win over Windham in a Division I contest at the Hackler Gymnasium.

The game was the first of a doubleheader with Londonderry and Salem playing after as part of the first Southern New Hampshire Rivalry Week. The four teams will return to Pinkerton on Saturday for two more games.

Sullivan finished with 38 points and 15 rebounds, as the senior found ways to score every time it seemed the Astros (4-0) needed a basket.

“Brady Sullivan was great,” Pinkerton coach Mike Dunham said. “He was really, really good getting to the rim. And it helps when teams can’t help (on defense) because we have Josh (Phanor) and Wilson (Youssef) and Ryder Hawkes, who shoots it really, really well.”

Phanor added 20 points for the Astros, going 9 of 10 from the free throw line, while Youssef was also in double figures with 11 points.

Windham (3-1) got 22 points, including three 3s, from Tyler Jordan and Roidoulis finished with 20 points, but had just eight in the second half.

“We put Sully on him,” Dunham said. “I think (Roidoulis) was a little too quick for our center, and that’s OK. He came out and blitzed us real quick. Sully really did a great job on the defensive end to stop that.”

It was a challenge for Sullivan to be that locked in on defense and continue to score at the other end, but it was one he looked forward to facing.

“It’s pretty tough,” he said. “You know, you’ve got to stay focused the entire game. You’ve got match up, make sure you’re guy’s not getting open. Then on the other end, you’ve got to make sure you’re contributing to your team, especially if you have a big role on offense.”

Windham led 17-16 after one quarter, and the game was tied at 20 early in the second, when Pinkerton went on a 15-5 run to take a 35-25 lead with 3:05 left in the first half. While Hawkes and Phanor each had a 3 during the run, most of the Astros points in the quarter came from getting into the lane.

“I feel like that’s our favorite way to play,” Sullivan said. “We get out and run. We just want to outwork the other team, outrun them. We play quick and we tend to do that because it’s been working for us so far.”

Pinkerton took a 37-29 lead into halftime, but Windham opened the third quarter with a 10-2 run to tie the game at 39.

Back-t0-back baskets by Sullivan put the Astros back up by four points, but the Jaguars would twice cut the lead back to one in the quarter. A basket by Jacobs made it 47-46 Pinkerton, but the Astros closed out the final 90 seconds of the third with a 6-2 run to take a 53-48 lead into the fourth.

The teams went back and forth to start the final quarter, with Pinkerton going up by as many as 10 and Windham cutting that lead in half. The Astros finally put the game away on a possession where they grabbed two offensive rebounds before Sullivan hit a corner 3 to start a 7-0 run that made it 70-58 with 1:38 remaining.

Pinkerton will play again on Saturday, as the Astros will square off with Salem at 2 p.m. at the Hackler Gymnasium.