HOLLIS – It wasn’t a must-win game Friday night for the Hollis Brookline High School girls basketball team, but Cavaliers coach Bob Murphy sure would have liked to pick one up over Goffstown.

With both teams next to each other in the standings, and a tiebreaker on the line, the Grizzlies were ready to go. The Cavaliers, who were celebrating senior night, were not.

HB scored just three points in the first quarter and struggled against Goffstown’s zone defense in a 46-32 loss in Division II action.

Bri Hackett led the Cavs (7-8) with nine points, all on 3-pointers, and Cassandra Stapelfeld added eight. Goffstown (9-7) got 17 points from Molly McQueeney and nine from Cassidy Lalumiere, as the Grizzlies never trailed in the game.

Afterward, Murphy wondered how his team might handle the senior night celebration to start the game.

“There’s too much going on our end,” Murphy said. “One team is getting mentally ready, meanwhile, we haven’t really touched a ball since Monday and we’re passing nice shirts around. Those things make a difference.”

When the teams played in Goffstown, Hackett finished with 25 points, and this time around, the Grizzlies made an effort to contain the HB senior.

“They put a lot of pressure on her,” Murphy said. “She wasn’t hitting her shots. I was asking the kids from the beginning to take the ball to the basket. We played bad basketball and we were still in the game, so that’s why I was excited at halftime. If we could just get good offense going, I mean, holding them to 16 points at halftime was pretty good I thought.”

The Cavs were down just three at halftime and twice made it a one-point game in the third quarter, but Goffstown closed the quarter on a 9-3 run to lead 29-22 going into the fourth.

“I think there were a couple of times that they were able to take advantage of us sagging off a little bit,” Goffstown coach Deanna Goodwin said. “Every open opportunity they had, they capitalized on and we had to make the adjustment and make sure they didn’t have those opportunities.

at Hollis

GOFFSTOWN (46)

Molly McQueeney 4-8-17, Cassidy Lalumiere 3-1-9, Rene Roggenbuck 2-3-7, Hannah Larochelle 2-0-4, Kathryn Howe 0-4-4, Alicia Minnich 1-0-2, Olivia Odell 1-0-2, Parker McBride 0-1-1. Totals: 13-17-46.

HOLLIS BROOKLINE (32)

Bri Hacket 3-0-9, Cassandra Stapelfeld 3-0-8, Kristin Johnson 2-1-5, Lindsey Beauregard 2-0-4, Sydney Gillis 1-0-2, Kristen DuPont 0-2-2, Ashley Skey 1-0-2. Totals: 12-3-32.

GOFFSTOWN (9-7) 8 8 13 17 – 46

HOLLIS BROOKLINE (7-8) 3 10 9 10 – 32

3-pointers: G – Lalumiere 2, McQueeney; H – Hackett 3 Stapelfeld 2. Prelim: HB won 33-30. Next game: HB heads to ConVal on Saturday.