Windham girls basketball rallies, then holds off Pinkerton for win

WINDHAM – Approaching the midway point of the fourth quarter of Friday night’s game against Pinkerton Academy, the Windham High School girls basketball team was in danger of losing its third game against a team with whom the Jaguars are competing atop the Division I standings.

Windham displayed some much-needed resiliency in some clutch moments to make sure that wouldn’t be the case.

The Astros held a 40-34 lead before Windham rallied for its biggest win of the season via 46-44 decision over the Astros. Windham (11-2) opened the season 9-0 before losing to defending Division I champion Bedford (13-0) last week and Londonderry (10-0) on Tuesday.

“The great thing about it is that the girls just keep staying positive and keep focusing on their next opponent and (Friday) they stayed true to that,” Windham coach Todd Steffinides said. “I can't be more happy with their effort. Our girls have been in positions the past couple weeks to continue to stick with it.”

Senior guard Meghan Husson scored 16 points and came up big down the stretch for Windham, as her 3-pointer gave the Jaguars 44-42 lead before Pinkerton’s Syd Gerossie (15 points) evened the game with a step-back jumper.

Husson came back down the court and drained a jumper of her own to give the Jaguars a 46-44 lead with 40.7 seconds left in regulation.

“I think we had a good mentality coming in and executed the ball when we needed to on offense and got a great win for sure,” Husson said. “This was a great confidence boost for us and I think we need to enjoy it now and get ready for our next game.”

The Astros (11-3) had a remaining sliver of hope with 1.4 seconds left after a full-court inbounds pass from Avery Steffanides sailed out of bounds to give Pinkerton the ball underneath its hoop.

Brooke Benz found Kaylee Dupuis on a last-ditch effort, but Husson and Lilah Boucher closed in to block the shot.

"We just let it go, got back and had the mentality that we’re going to finish out the game and that last second and that’s what we did," Husson said.

Avery Steffanides (12 points) was glad to see her miscue wasn't harmful. She capped off a 7-0 run with a 3-pointer to give Windham a 41-40 lead with 2:30 remaining.

“It was tough after the pass but my team stepped up and played defense,” Avery Steffanides said. “We were up and there was no reason to get down. We just played our defense like we played our defense the whole game.”

Husson echoed Avery Steffanides’ sentiments about the defense clamping down and creating the offensive opportunities that led Windham to the comeback win.

“It was definitely just talking on defense and stopping them so we can get the ball in transition,” Husson said.

Pinkerton has now lost two of its past three games after also dropping a 56-45 decision against Londonderry last week. The Astros host Bedford on Monday in a rematch of last month’s 65-52 win for the Bulldogs.

“We’re still working on our execution and it’s a little frustrating as we get down to the end of the season and we’re playing a murderers' row (of a schedule),” Pinkerton coach Lani Buskey said. “But the way I look at it is every game like this we have a situation we’re learning and I hope we’re growing and I think this makes us more of a playoff-caliber team.”

Todd Steffinides noticed early on into his first season as coach that talent was there to compete and now the Jaguars have put themselves in a great position heading into the final five games of the regular season.

“These girls can accomplish whatever they’re willing to work hard for and so far they’ve done that,” Todd Steffinides said. “They show up every day, not complaining, working hard in practice and that’s all we can ask from them.”