During Friday’s opening round of the Capital Area Holiday Tournament at NHTI, the promising young Concord girls’ basketball team learned a valuable lesson – how to win ugly.
Bow and Concord combined to shoot just 3-for-23 from 3-point land and 34.3 percent overall, and there were a whopping 35 fouls. Division II Bow hung with the D-I Crimson Tide through the first three sloppy quarters, but Concord pulled away in the fourth for a 51-38 win.
“I liked our resiliency,” Concord coach Tim LaTorra said. “We played pretty well in our first two regular-season games, and this was the first time we were in an ugly game, but that’s to be expected over the holiday break.
“We talked about it in the locker room after the game, you’ve got to learn to win ugly games like that. We locked down defensively, got some steals, created some easy scoring opportunities and took care of the basketball down the stretch, and those are the kind of things you need to do to win a game like this.”
Concord (2-0 in D-I) will now play Merrimack Valley (1-1 in D-II) in Sunday’s 4 p.m. semifinal. MV beat Hopkinton 43-32 in the first game of the day at NHTI. Bow (2-1 in D-II) will play Hopkinton (5-0 in D-III) in Saturday’s 11:30 a.m. consolation game.
“We had defensive lapses for too long a period of time,” Bow coach Bill Vermette said. “Maybe we can have defensive lapses here and there, but not for two or three minutes at a time. And we got sloppy with the ball. We had 23 turnovers against a team that didn’t press us.”
Concord sophomore Elizabeth Blinn scored nine of her 14 points in the second half, including six in the fourth quarter. The 6-foot-1 Blinn was limited in the first half by the interior play from Bow’s Jessica Chamberlin and Eleanor Pingree, who scored 12 of her team-high 13 points in the first half. But after a halftime talk from LaTorra, Blinn raised her game in the second half.
“We kind of called our bigs out a little bit at halftime,” LaTorra said. “Our game plan is we need our bigs to show up and be better than the other team’s bigs. And credit to Bow, they came out in the first half and made a statement with their bigs. So it was nice to see Elizabeth and Jordyn (Lengle) and Kali (Daigneault) and Jessica (White) take that constructive criticism at halftime and show up when we needed them to.”
Concord got another solid performance from its 5-10 freshman point guard, Ava Woodman, who finished with 14 points, five assists and four steals. Woodman had a team-high 24 points in the Tide’s season-opening 52-32 win at Salem and 18 points in a 60-55 win at Exeter, a game where Blinn had 19 points.
“We’re going to go as Ava goes. She’s a pretty special player and we’re lucky to have her,” LaTorra said. “The girls understand she’s got a really high basketball IQ and she’s got a great skill set. And the great thing about her is she’s humble. We talk out loud about she’s got a ton of talent and she’s got a ton of potential, but she’s as humble and as modest as you can be. She puts the team first, and that sets the tone for us.”
“I like it a lot,” Woodman said when asked about her introduction to high school basketball. “Everything about it is going well so far.”
Concord also got nice games from seniors Kylar Buchholz (12 points, four steals) and Sydney Plante (five points, three assists), who set up Blinn for three easy layups in the fourth quarter with on-point passes.
“Sydney has not gotten any minutes this year and she stepped into a big role tonight because she busted her tail all week and I thought she was tremendous,” LaTorra said.
After back-to-back jumpers from Lindsay Burnham (five points), the Falcons took a 22-19 lead with 3:27 left in the first half. But the Tide went on a 6-0 run to close the second quarter and took a 26-24 lead into halftime.
Concord closed the third with an 8-2 run, powered by a pair of steals, four points and an assist from Woodman, and built its lead to 39-32 as the game went into the fourth.
That’s when the Tide locked down on defense, not giving up a field goal until Bow freshman Alex Larabee (nine points) scored in the final minute, but by then it was too late.
“Our defense has been the key to our success on the court so far,” LaTorra said. “We stopped putting so much work into the offensive end and started focusing more on defense. That gives us a chance to be in games even when they’re not pretty.”
Concord wants to be in these Holiday Tournament games…and then some.
“We very badly want to win this tournament,” Woodman said, “it’s our city.”
Merrimack Valley 42,
Hopkinton 31
Key players: Merrimack Valley – Alyssa Woodman (12 points, 6 steals), Mackenzie McDonald (10 points, 5 rebounds), Hayley Kenney (6 points, 6 rebounds), Miah Boucher; Hopkinton – Katie Meserve (8 points, 6 rebounds), Ellie Owen (6 points, 8 rebuonds), Kally Murdough (6 points)
Highlights: Division III Hopkinton built a 10-7 lead after the first quarter and pushed it to 23-14 by halftime, but D-II MV flexed its muscle in the second half to come away with the win.
Coach’s quote: “We didn’t do a lot of good things in the first half. Defensively we fouled a ton and struggled to score and credit Hopkinton for playing good defense. In the third, we outscored them 21-4. Basically we went back to some simple things defensively, and offensively we got some transition baskets and tried to score at the rim. The girls did a good job in the second half and I really liked the way they responded. ” – MV’s Bob McNutt
“We played a good first half, but then we ran out of gas.” – Hopkinton’s Pat Roye
Records: Merrimack Valley 1-1 (D-II); Hopkinton 5-0 (D-III)
Pittsfield 59,
Inter-Lakes 41
Key players: Pittsfield – Tyler Prentice (18 points), Devin Bedell (6 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists), Jah Gordon (3 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assist
Highlights: After some halftime adjustments the Panthers started the third quarter on a 17-2 run and coasted the rest of the way to secure a victory in their first game of the Mike Lee Holiday Bash at Farmington High School.
Coach’s quote: “We came out after half time and were able to pick up the tempo and get out in transition. We had a well-balanced attack getting scoring from 10 of our 12 players.” – Pittsfield’s Jay Darrah
Records: Pittsfield 3-1; Inter-Lakes 1-3
Concord 6,
Manchester Memorial 0
Key players: Concord – Joey Ala (2 goals), Matt Hauschild (2 goals), Tyler Coskren (goal), Zach Drew (goal, 2 assists), Ryan Doherty (assist), Brooks Craigue (assist) Noah Drew (assist), Colin Nelson, Will Pegnam (17 saves)
Highlights: This was the Crimson Tide’s second shutout, and blowout, in the first two days of the Brian Stone Memorial Tournament in Manchester. On Thursday, Concord beat Bow 9-0 as seven different players scored, led by Doherty and Coskren, who had two goals each. Concord finishes group play with a game against Manchester Central-West on Saturday.
Records: Concord 2-0; Memorial 0-2