Above the Rim: A year makes a difference for Gilford girls basketball

Madison Harris could see a big difference in the locker room before the Gilford High School girls basketball team took the court for Saturday's Division III title game.

Going into last year's final against Conant, the Golden Eagles felt pretty good about playing on the final day of the season, and Harris felt like they took that out onto the court with them.

This year, with eight seniors back in that locker room at Southern New Hampshire University, the difference was obvious.

"It wasn't just the seniors, it was the whole team," Harris said. "Last year, we lacked senior leadership. Going into last year, a lot of us were like 'oh, there's always next year, it's OK if we don't win.' This year, it was now or never. We had to do what we had to do, and it had to be now."

That senior leadership helped when Gilford trailed Laconia by seven points early in the first quarter. It helped when three of them - Harris, Cassidy Bartlett and Jordan Dean - each picked up a fourth foul in the second half.

Bartlett picked up her fourth foul with over a minute left in the third quarter, and spent about four minutes on the bench before coming back.

"We knew we needed to play smart and with our feet and our heads," she said. "I think comes with that experience, with being a veteran.

"We were very composed this year. We were very experienced. Last year, we didn't know what we were coming into because we'd never been here before. Going against Conant last year, it gave us a lot of experience."

That experience paid off in the fourth quarter, too. The Eagles turned the ball over on five straight possessions, but were able to regroup on defense and keep Laconia from taking advantage.

Gilford was also 3 of 7 from the field and 3 of 4 at the foul line in the final eight minutes, while the Sachems shot 2 of 10 and 0 of 4 respectively. For the game, Laconia was just 7 of 17 at the line.

"It's very uncharacteristic of us all year long," Laconia coach Jeff Greeley said. "Those are the situations that we usually capitalized on. One after another after another, it was like we started pressing. If we could have made some throughout the game, it could have been a difference."

Greeley was concerned going into the game about how his players would play after an emotional semifinal win over defending-champion Conant.

It turned out there was nothing for the coach to be worried about, as Laconia picked up where it left in that win.

"I was a little fearful that because they had exhausted so much physical and emotional energy, that they might come out and lay an egg," Greeley said. "But after the last two days of practice, watching their demeanor, I knew they were ready. They came out with so much fire and emotion."

After the teams have played each other eight times in the last two years - twice in the regular season, once at the holiday break and once in the playoffs - they might not play next season, as Laconia is expected to move back up to Division II for the next two-year cycle.

"This ending is probably the best, picture-perfect thing," Harris said. "As a group of seniors, we've been playing together since rec league. To have this win over our neighbors, our rivals on the court, it couldn’t have gone any better."