Pinkerton girls basketball bounces back with win over Merrimack

DERRY - The Pinkerton Academy girls basketball team doesn't have to play perfect to have a successful night, but the Astros do have to cut down on mistakes.

That's what Lani Buskey has been trying to impress upon the Astros as they get ready for the postseason.

Pinkerton wasn't mistake-free Wednesday night against Merrimack, but with the exception of a stretch in the second quarter, the Astros were locked in and clicking on their way to a 46-38 win over the Tomahawks in a Division I game.

Elizabeth Lavoie had 15 points to lead Pinkerton (7-2) while Avah Ingalls scored 11 of her 13 points in the first half and Abby Marasco added eight points.

"What I’m trying to impress upon them is that I don’t expect a perfect game, no coach can," Buskey said. "But we need to reduce the turnovers, and we need to play better games, and we need to be smarter. We need to do the little things correctly."

After falling to Windham, 41-32, on Tuesday, Buskey relayed that to her team as best she could, and the way her players responded was what she was hoping to see happen.

"We had a heart-to-heart at the end, which was mostly me talking at them," the coach said. "I told them we’ve got to figure this out, and to their credit, they came in early (Wednesday) as a team, and made a list of team goals.

"They presented them to me. Our thing has been walking the walk, and (Wednesday), they walked the walk. They set all those goals and they made sure to hit them together as a team."

Merrimack (6-6) got 13 points from Gillian Waller, who hit three 3-pointers in a row in the second quarter to help the Tomahawks come back from an 13-point deficit. Emma Valluzzi added eight points and Kiera Bike chipped in with seven points and had a strong all-around game.

"She’s been filling the stat sheet up recently, but she can go unnoticeable at times because she does everything," Merrimack coach Bryan Duggan said of Bike. "She might not show up points-wise, but she is one of our best defenders and she can handle the ball. She’s getting more confident scoring."

But overall, Duggan felt the Tomahawks put too much energy into making that second-quarter comeback and let the foot off the gas once they closed the gap.

"We did some things nicely in spurts, but we spotted them that lead and it was like we were chasing them and had the effort to tie it, but never made that move," the coach said. "We were just satisfied making it close and that was the mentality of the night. It shows you’ve got come to play every game."

After Pinkerton took an 18-5 lead early in the second, but a 3-pointer by Lilli Dabilis started Merrimac on a 12-0 run that all came from behind the 3-point line. Waller hit back-to-back 3s to make it 18-14 and force Buskey to use a timeout, but after the break, the Merrimack senior hit another 3 to get the Tomahawks within one.

The Astros stopped the bleeding on a putback by Marasco and Lavoie added a layup to make it 22-17. Shannon Sadhwani scored for Merrimack to make it a three-point game, but Ingalls scored with a second left in the half to give Pinkerton a 24-19 lead going into halftime.

It was a six-point game midway through the third quarter when Pinkerton went on a 13-5 run to take a 42-28 lead early in the fourth quarter on 3 by Hailey Frost.

The teams will finish out the regular season this week, with Pinkerton hosting Windham at 1 p.m. on Thursday and Merrimack hosting Londonderry at 6 p.m. on Friday.