Windham girls basketball hangs on again to beat Pinkerton, advance to D1 semis

WINDHAM — Last month, the Windham High School girls basketball used a late rally to beat Pinkerton Academy during a regular-season matchup that came down to the wire.

Thursday’s rematch in the Division I quarterfinals followed a similar script between the two evenly-matched teams, including another victory by the Jaguars.

Sixth-seeded Pinkerton grabbed a one-point lead midway through the fourth quarter, but No. 3 Windham closed out strong to survive with a 44-41 decision.

“I think as a team, at the end, coming together and cheering for each other was awesome,” Windham guard Meghan Husson said. “I just think our defense was great, just talking defense as a team and we were just working through those screens. Communication is key on defense and I thought we did a great job overall on that.”

Windham rallied from a 40-34 deficit for a 46-44 victory during last month’s meeting in which it held Pinkerton star Syd Gerossie (17.9 PPG) to 15 points. Windham’s formula worked even better on Thursday, as Rileigh Finneron and Husson locked down Gerossie to 11 points.

“It was just confidence, and if there was a mistake just move on,” Finneron said. “Pinkerton is a great team and (Gerossie) is a great player, but we just had to play our game. Me and Meghan have played with each other a lot and we did what we usually do.”

Windham (18-2) carries an 8-game win streak into Monday’s semifinals against Londonderry (19-1) at Exeter High School at 6 p.m. The Lancers advanced with a 55-41 win over No. 7 Salem (13-7).

“It was very similar to the first game, we’re very evenly matched and this game could’ve gone either way,” Windham coach Todd Steffanides said. “Defensively we just tried to focus on getting stops and taking away Syd and try to make someone else get their crucial points. It wasn’t an easy task, they’ve got a number of players that can score. But overall, I think we did pretty well.”

Pinkerton (15-6) trailed 34-30 entering the fourth quarter before going on an 8-3 run that was capped off by a putback by Brooke Benz (11 points) that gave the Astros a 38-37 lead. Windham countered with a pair of free throws from Finneron (nine points) and a jumper by Avery Steffanides (12 points) to give the Jaguars a 41-38 lead with two minutes left in regulation.

Kaylee Dupuis (13 points) brought Pinkerton to within 41-40 before Husson sank a pair of free throws to give Windham a 44-41 lead with 21.5 seconds left.

Gerossie was granted a pair of free throws with 7.1 seconds left but after missing the first, she intentionally missed the second and Pinkerton grabbed the rebound. Hayden Leccese and Gerossie each missed 3-point attempts to tie the game.

“It was definitely nerve-wracking at the end and I had to think we had to try to box out and get the rebound and let these seven seconds go by,” Husson said. “It felt like a long time, but we pulled together at the end.”

Pinkerton coach Lani Buckey felt like her team made too many mistakes that ultimately cost the Astros in the end.

“We weren’t doing the little things and that was a deciding factor for us,” Buckey said. “(Windham) is very even and a matchup nightmare and we’re a matchup nightmare, too. A big thing for us is that we really didn’t finish on the offensive end. The opportunities we got we didn’t finish.”

For the Jaguars, this will be the first appearance in the D1 semifinals since moving up before the 2018-19 season. Windham's only other semifinal appearances were in D2, as it reached back-to-back final fours in 2012-13.