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Cards prove their worth with 65-53 win over Astros

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Feb 24, 2018

Staff photo by TOM KING Bishop Guertin's Hannah Muchemore (1) loses the ball vs. the double team of Pinkerton's Cydney Lessard (35) and Madison Mahoney during Friday night's key Division I battle in Nashua.

NASHUA – They’ll enter next week’s tournament as the fifth seed, but most feel the Bishop Guertin High School girls basketball team is one of the two best in Divison I.

The Cardinals took another step in proving that fact with a 65-53 win over the highly regarded Pinkerton Academy Astros on Friday night at the Coligadome.

Guertin thus ends the regular season at 13-5, but the Cards’ only in-state loss is to unbeaten, top-ranked Bedford.

“I think if everyone in this league is being honest, that (BG) record is very misleading,” said Pinkerton coach Lani Buskey, whose Astros will actually likely finish No. 2 at 14-4, followed by Manchester Memorial as No.3 and Merrimack in fourth. “They’re not a 13-5 team by any means.”

“I think from start to finish that was probably the most complete game we played all year long,” Guertin coach Brad Krieck said. “To me, what it means is, I think we did the right thing with these kids playing really tough (out-of-state) games early in the season.

“The intensity and the pace in this game against a really, really good team, we knew it was going to be there and the kids handled themselves really well.”

However, they may have suffered one or two individual losses, as top scoring guard Erin Carney left the game with 5:30 to go in the third quarter, suffering an apparent painful left ankle injury as she hit the floor after hitting a layup that gave the Cards a 34-24 lead.

About 10 minutes later, Guertin guard Bri Wilcox also left with an apparent ankle injury.

“You know, they’ll be fine,” Krieck said. “I think they’ve got sprained ankles, we’ve got a handful of days (prelims are Wednesday) to rest up. They’re both really tough kids.”

Picking up the slack was sophomore guard Hannah Muchemore, who led Guertin with 18 points while senior Caroline Hoffer added eight. Ava Owens and Wilcox each had eight.

Guertin led at all the stops – 10-7 after one, 26-22 at the half, and 47-36 after three. The Cards went on a 12-2 run to start the second half, keyed by Carney, and led 45-26 before the Astros began a mini-comeback with a 10-0 run.

“We didn’t handle the press well, which is kind of shocking to me,” Buskey said. “We knew it was coming. You don’t play BG without knowing the press is coming. I think it was a composure thing for us. I’m proud of my girls because they gave it a fight, but too deep of a hole to dig out of.”

Yes, and with Hoffer and Owens keying the offense, the lead built back up to 54-36 with 6:08 left, and that was about it.

When the Astros’ Brooke Kane (game-high 21 points) hit a trey with 2:42 left, it made it somewhat interesting at 57-48, but not threatening enough.

“We told the kids all week long that it was going to be a four-quarter game,” Krieck said, “and that it was going to get one or lost in the third quarter into the fourth quarter. We were fortunate enough to control the tempo of the game. … The kids kept coming for 32 minutes.”

The Cards kept the aggression up, as they went to the line 39 times to the Astros’ 10, although Guertin made it interesting by just hitting 21.

Still, the Cards feel they proved something on Friday.

“I think we definitely did,” Hoffer said. “I think it was definitely a step in the right direction, and it was definitely good momentum going into the playoffs next week. … A lot of people stepped up tonight, which is good for us.”

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