Wilton-Lyndeborough takes girls basketball opener over Sunapee

WILTON – Denny Claire knew what his Wilton-Lyndeborough girls basketball team was up against in Friday’s Division IV season opener.

Sunapee was a semifinalist a year ago and is one of the favorites again this year, but the Lakers were without two starters and had two others in foul trouble. The Warriors took full advantage, opening up a 15-point lead in the second half on the way to a 49-39 win over the Lakers, the first that Claire can remember in his nine years as varsity girls coach.

“Big win,” he said. “I don’t know if we have ever beaten them. They got themselves in foul trouble. That hurt them. Not having their best two players really hurt them. But hey, you can’t take it away from us. It doesn’t say who played or didn’t play. The girls hustled. We played 10 girls and everyone gave it their all.”

Liza Roy led the Warriors (1-0) with 10 points, as nine of the 10 players who got in the game scored for W-L. Erika Martina and Kalie Randlett had nine points each for the Warriors.

Abby Armstrong led Sunapee with 12 points, all of which came in the fourth quarter after Armstrong picked up four fouls in the first half. Molly Puchtler scored all of her 11 points in the first half, as she was called for four fouls in the third quarter.

The Lakers were also without starters Liza Bourdon and Allison Tenney, both of whom make Sunapee a team that contend for the title, according to Claire.

“When they’re full strength, they could win it,” he said. “Tenney, she never misses a foul shot and if you give her a 3, she’s deadly. Bourdon, we double teamed her last year and did a great job and held her to 14 points. I think they’ll be right there this year once they get healthier.”

Healthy or not, the win meant a lot to the Warriors, especially to their seniors. When the final buzzer sounded, W-L’s Alex Bosquet rushed to the bench to hug fellow senior Ally Jenkerson.

“We haven’t beaten Sunapee as long as I’ve been playing, and as long as the other girls have been playing,” Bosquet said. “It meant a lot. They’re a team to beat every year.”

The Warriors looked like they might be the ones winning easily after the third quarter. After leading 22-20 at halftime, W-L outscored Sunapee 15-2 in the quarter.

The Lakers’ only points came with 4:39 left in the third on a jump shot by Meg Clarenbach, which made it 27-22 W-L. The Warriors closed out the quarter by going on a 10-0 run.

But Sunapee wasn’t done. The teams traded baskets to open the fourth, but after that, the Lakers picked up the pace, and the Warriors started turning the ball over instead of slowing it down.

“We just kind of got anxious,” Bosquet said. “We were ahead and they started running faster. We just kind of took a break and said we don’t need to be running, we had to calm down.”

Claire was surprised at which players were the ones turning it over.

“Having my seniors turning the ball over at the end …,” he said. “We discussed it, what we’re going to do, we’re going to control the ball, slow down the offense and if we get a layup, we take a layup. We had the game and there was no way that should happen.”

Two 3-pointers by Armstrong, sandwiched around a three-point play by Rylee Weinstein, made it a 41-35 game, and after another W-L turnover, Weinstein scored on a layup to make it a four-point game with four minutes to play.

But on the next possession for the Warriors, Randlett grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back in to push the lead back to six, starting an 8-0 for W-L that put the game away.

“They were nervous (at the start); it was Sunapee,” Claire said. “But at halftime, they were pretty confident. I said go out there and do it. The third quarter was the key, we came out and played pretty good. Defensively, we played pretty tough.”

While the turnover numbers were even at the end, the Warriors managed to force the Lakers into 11 turnovers in the third quarter, while giving the ball up just twice.

“We had a lot steals, a lot of turnovers,” Claire said. “I think it worked out all right.”