Strong second half helps Gilford get past Monadnock in D3 girls basketball semis (video)

BOW - Every time Addison Hodsdon stood at the free throw line in the fourth quarter of Wednesday's Division III semifinal, she focused on the same thing.

That focus paid off for the freshman, and the Gilford High School girls basketball team.

Hodsdon went 6 for 8 from the line in the final two minutes of the game to help the third-seeded Golden Eagles put away a 43-35, come-from-behind win over No. 7 Monadnock in the D3 final four at Bow High School.

Gilford advances to the championship game for the first time since 2016, when the Golden Eagles won their most recent title, where they will face No. 1 Fall Mountain at 1 p.m. Saturday at Keene State College.

Hodsdon led Gilford (18-3) with 17 points, as she went 10 for 16 from the line overall, with all 10 makes coming in the second half. Skye Maltais added 10 points, including two 3-pointers, one of which gave the Golden Eagles the lead midway through the third quarter, and Lucy Akerstrom had two key baskets in the fourth quarter and finished with five points.

“It was a tight game (in the first half), and you can kind of see the rim closing a little bit,” Gilford coach Scott Currier said. “I thought (Hodsdon) got a steal early right off the bat in the second half and it got some of the tone back for us. Addy and Skye both bit big free throws down at the end that, if they missed those, that’s a very different ball game.”

Although this was her first trip to the semifinals, Hodsdon understood the importance of making those shots.

“Free throws are a really big thing for me because there are going to be times like this when free throws do matter and you want to be prepared for that,” Hodsdon said. “I just try to block (the crowd noise) all out, focus on what’s important, and just continue playing my game.”

After a first half that saw Gilford score just three points over the final eight-plus minutes, often times settling for outside shots, the Golden Eagles made an emphasis on changing how they were playing at halftime.

“We felt that there were certain things that we just kept doing, things that we needed to do to be successful in the second half, things that were squarely on us that were fixable,” Currier said. “I think it takes a half for us to begin. That’s kind of the youthfulness, the new experience for all of us. I think once we got some of the jitters out of the way, we were OK.”

Monadnock (15-6) got a dozen points, including three 3s, from Jezalinnah Fusco while Ella Santaw had 11 points and Brooklyn Kidney added 10 points. But only one other player scored for the Huskies, who scored just four points over a nearly 12-minute stretch in the middle of the game.

The Huskies ended the first quarter with a 7-2 run to take a 15-11 lead into the second, but then went scoreless for almost six minutes. Monadnock was up 17-14 at the half and a basket by Kidney to open the the third gave the Huskies a five-point lead.

But Gilford went on an 8-0, taking the lead back on a 3 by Maltais to go up 22-19. That lead stretched to 30-24 going into the fourth quarter, but a 3 by Fusco got Monadnock within one, 30-29, with 5:39 to play.

Back-to-back baskets by Akerstrom put the Golden Eagles up 34-29, and a layup from Abby Watson gave Gilford a 36-32 lead moments later. From there, Hodsdon went to work at the free throw line to put the game away.

“It’s crazy,” the freshman said. “We’ve been working hard all season. We’ve come a really long way.”