Pinkerton girls basketball takes care of business in playoff win over Spaulding (video)

DERRY - Lani Buskey has implored the Pinkerton Academy girls basketball team to play together at varying points of this season.

In Tuesday night's Division I preliminary round game against Spaulding, an unfortunate situation forced the Astros to do so even more, and they figured out a way to get it done.

Stretches of better ball distribution, along with clutch free throw shooting late, helped fifth-seeded Pinkerton pull away in the final moments for a 60-45 win over the No. 12 Red Raiders. The Astros will now face No. 4 Goffstown, which beat No. 13 Salem in the opening round, on the road in the quarterfinals on Friday.

"I’ll take the win," Buskey said. "I went at them at halftime and said you’re not playing like a team. You’re playing hero ball. You have 16 minutes to play like a team. It wasn’t perfect, but they played more like a team in those 16 minutes. The ball started moving, we got some energy on defense. It looks like it wasn’t a close game, but anyone who was here knows it was close for a long time."

The Astros (15-4) were able to get it done despite losing sophomore point guard Sydney Gerossie to a right knee injury just three minutes into the second quarter. While the severity of the injury wasn't know right away, Buskey was doubtful Gerossie would be back for the quarterfinal.

"My gut says no Syd for Goffstown," she said. "The good news is, we are very familiar being down a starter this year. We’ve had six games we’ve been down, so at least we have a little experience for that.

"It’s about taking the next few days at practice and figuring out a way to create the offense without Syd. It’s there, we can do it, we just have to change the scheme up."

Against Spaulding (9-10), it was junior Liz Lavoie who handled a lot of the creating after Gerossie went down. Not only did Lavoie finish with a game-high 25 points, she forced a handful of turnovers on the defensive end, and with the Red Raiders keying on her, was able to distribute when the Astros needed a basket.

Kaylee Dupuis added nine points and Devin LeBrun came off the bench to added eight points, including two 3s, for Pinkerton. Hannah Drew led Spaulding with 14 points, with two 3s, and Jenna Philbrook added a dozen points.

"Syd is a huge part of everything we do," Lavoie said. "She leads our offense and is a huge vocal leader on the court. When she went down, I knew I had to pick up the distributing a lot. That’s what she does best, she’s a great passer. I think what we focus on a lot is moving the ball a lot, driving, kicking, and that’s a huge thing for us."

It took time to get that going, and although Pinkerton held the lead throughout the second quarter, it was just a two-point game at halftime.

That changed to start the second half, as the Astros opened the third quarter with a 13-0 run, taking a 41-26 lead on a three-point play by Lavoie with 3:47 left in the frame. Four different players scored during the run, with Lavoie and Kaylee Dupuis getting four each.

But Spaulding had an answer, getting a basket from Mackenzie Brochu moments after Lavoie's three-point play, to start an 11-0 run to end the third. A 3-pointer by Drew just before the buzzer cut Pinkerton's lead to 41-37 going into the fourth.

"Basketball is a game of runs and we know that when we get down, we can’t stay down," Lavoie said. "We’ve got to keep pushing. They started to make a little bit of a comeback, so we’re like we need to focus and get our energy right. No matter what, if we work together, it’s all going to work out."

Lavoie made sure of that, scoring two baskets to start the quarter and get the lead back up to eight points. With both teams slowing things down, scoring did the same, and with 2:58 to play, Lavoie hit a pair of free throws to give the Astros a 49-40 lead that looked like it was going to be enough.

But with two minutes to play, Spaulding's Jane Trueman came up with a steal and got the ball to Philbrook, who was fouled by Dupuis to put the Red Raiders in the bonus. Philbrook missed the front end, but Spaulding got the rebound and got the ball to Drew, who hit a 3 to make it a six-point game with 1:49 to go.

Pinkerton got down the floor quickly and got a basket from Brooke Benz. Although it was the Astros' final field goal of the game, it started an 11-2 run to end the night, as Pinkerton went 9 of 10 at the foul line in the final 1:08.

"I make them shoot 50 foul shots every practice," Buskey said. "They hate it because it takes too long, but I tell them, this is what wins games in the playoffs. We’ve been shooting a ton. Being able to pull that off in two minutes, there is growth happening."