Pinkerton girls basketball smothers Windham to advance to D1 semifinals

DERRY – The Pinkerton Academy girls basketball team views the defensive paint as its home, and the Astros are not fond of having visitors.

Against Windham in the Division I quarterfinals, Pinkerton was a rude host whenever its guest tried to get inside, so much so that the Jaguars had to settle for outside shots for three quarters.

The No. 2 Astros held the No. 7 Jaguars to just one two-point field goal over the first 24 minutes of Saturday’s game and were efficient on offense and at the free throw line when they needed to be in a 46-34 win.

Pinkerton (18-1) will head to the D1 semifinals for the third year in a row, where it will face No. 6 Portsmouth, which knocked off No. 3 Bedford, at 6 p.m. at Southern New Hampshire University on Thursday.

Madison Mahoney led the Astros with 13 points, including 7 of 8 from the free throw line, and Brooke Kane recorded 12 points, with only five in the second half, as seven different players scored for Pinkerton.

While the diversity in scoring was nice, it was the defensive effort that lifted the Astros.

"My girls just have heart on defense," Pinkerton coach Lani Buskey said. "It’s the culture and it’s the expectation. They take pride in that. They protect home and the middle is home. It doesn’t matter who you are, they are in the middle trying to protect it."

And protect it they did.

Windham's Sam Adamson scored on a putback with 5:33 remaining in the first quarter to give the Jaguars a 5-2 lead, and Windham wouldn't score inside the 3-point line again until Adamson had another second-chance basket with 6:22 left in the fourth quarter.

"Sometimes, the ball just doesn’t want to fall in the hole for you, and sometimes it doesn’t bounce your way," Windham coach Anne Haky said. "It’s definitely not all us, it’s a lot of them, just their size and their athleticism, obviously. We tried a couple of times and you saw them just swat it away, or we’d throw it off the bottom of the backboard there. A lot of credit to Pinkerton, they are a great team."

Ali Schiebel led Windham (12-8) with 13 points, including three 3-pointers, before fouling out in the fourth. Pinkerton limited Adamson and Sarah Dempsey to just five points each and Windham was just 8 of 19 at the free throw line, including 1 of 7 in the first half; the Astros were 14 of 18 overall.

"Big difference when you make free throws and when you don’t make free throws," Haky said. "Pinkerton made them. Those are little momentum builders that couldn’t go our way."

Windham was able to jump out to a 9-5 lead in the first quarter, with Schiebel hitting two 3-pointers, but Pinkerton scored eight straight points to end the quarter, including a 3 by Jesse Ames at the buzzer to make it 13-9.

Abby Husson (seven point) hit a 3 for Windham to open the scoring in the second, but the Astros went on an 11-0 run to take a 24-12 lead.

Things were going so well for Pinkerton that Buskey even took Kane out when she picked up her second foul with 3:48 left in the first half.

"Pulling Brooke for me … I hope I have grown this team to the point that they’re ready for me to pull her in the playoffs for two minutes," she said. "I feel I can for two reasons. One, we have Maddy (Mahoney) and having another veteran on the court helps. Defensively, I always believe in my girls, so while we might not get as many scoring opportunities, I know my girls can hold the fort for that two-minute span."

Mahoney was 4 for 4 at the free throw line during that stretch and Pinkerton took a 24-15 lead into halftime. The Astros pushed the lead to 13 at one points in the third and took a 36-25 advantage into the fourth.

A 3 by Schiebel and Adamson's putback cut the lead down to six points and led to a Pinkerton timeout with 6:19 to play. While the Astros would only get one field goal the rest of the way, they went 8 of 12 from the line, including five in a row after the Jaguars cut the lead to six.

"Right before we played Windham in the regular season, we were shooting horrible from the line," Buskey said. "Since that day, in practice, they have to shoot 50 in a row. They can’t talk, they just go to a hoop and they shoot 50 foul shots. They’ve been doing that for maybe a month now. Our numbers are up. In the playoffs, that can be make or break you."

Despite the shooting struggles for Windham, Huky was pleased with the effort the Jaguars put in, just like they had throughout their first season in D1.

"They exceed all of their own expectations," she said. "Not mine because I knew what we had. I know the caliber of kids that we had mentally and physically. We’ve been doubted all season and that’s the attitude we’ve got to play with."