There was a whole lot the Bishop Brady girls’ basketball team had to endure on Friday night at NHTI. The Green Giants survived a furious late-game comeback, a miraculous game-tying, and-one 3-pointer with 2.5 seconds left and watched on as the potential game-winning free throw rimmed out for Pembroke Academy.
Through it all, Brady never wavered, never batted an eye and never looked back, outscoring the Spartans, 13-4, in overtime to claim the Capital Area Holiday Tournament championship with a 67-58 triumph over the Spartans at the Dr. Goldie Crocker Wellness Center.
“For us it was next play, next play,” said Brady’s Sam Will, who was named tournament MVP after posting 26 points and 13 rebounds in the title game win. “Every single thing that we did, it was worry about the next play. We didn’t think about what we just did, like yeah we made a shot, or yeah the girl shot a 3 in our face, it was next play every single time.”
With Pembroke down on the scoreboard by three with 9.2 seconds to play, Spartan guard Olivia Langevin gathered herself on the left wing and popped a 3-pointer over the fingertips of Brady’s Riley Bennett. Langevin buried the shot and drew the foul, but missed on the free throw attempt that could have wrapped things up for the Spartans.
“For her to make that shot for us makes us better,” Pembroke Coach Jessica Hardiman said. “It gives us a lot of momentum going into the regular season that we can play with a team like this.”
Langevin and the Spartans would not get a chance at redemption in overtime. Will sunk a corner 3 in the opening minute and Bennett, who started off the contest 2-for-11, came alive in the extra period scoring five of her 19 points in the frame.
“It was good to finally come back and win,” Will said. “We lost last year and this year was definitely our year to come back and get what we should have got last year. I think every single one of us has worked really hard over the summer and this was our first goal as a team with a new coach and we did a really good job accomplishing it.”
The tournament championship was the second for the Green Giants in the last three years, but it was the very first for Coach Annie Alosa, whose led a growing Brady program to a 2-1 record to start the regular season.
“We talk a lot about heart and we want to be different,” Alosa said. “We talk about our motto this year is our story and we want to define our story, we don’t want anyone to define it for us. … This is just another chapter for us and we like to learn in every chapter and we learned a lot today.”
The Giants carved out an eight-point lead after the first quarter, but struggled to play at the fast-paced tempo they prefer. Pembroke played a large role in that, keeping the contest at its pace and going to the free throw line 16 times in the second quarter alone to trim Brady’s lead to four going into halftime.
But Will, coming into her own in her junior season, was the true difference-maker in the second half and overtime. Her ability to shoot off the dribble with ease and sink mid-range jumpers allowed the Giants to maintain a steady cushion despite shooting 22 of 74 from the field for the game.
Pembroke received solid contributions from a number of players, including a team-high 20 points for Morgan Allen, who consistently bullied the Giants in the lane and in the paint. Juniors Ciera Clark and Brooklyn Zanis added 10 and 16 points, respectively, with Zanis sinking a trio of 3-pointers.
“I think they played unbelievable,” Hardiman said. “The best I’ve seen them play all season. They played together and we try to play as a team everyday and work hard.”
Both teams will put the tournament behind them when the regular season resumes Wednesday. Pembroke (2-5) returns home to face Goffstown, while Brady hosts Hanover.
(Jay McAree can be reached at 369-3340 or at jmcaree@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @jaymcaree.)