Telegraph photo by TOM KING Pinkerton's Jesse Ames has the ball knocked away by Merrimack's Heather Rohr during Thursday night's 48-32 Astros win in Merrimack.

MERRIMACK – Their spunk is back.

It may not have translated to a girls basketball win for the Merrimack High School Tomahawks on Thursday night, but their coach, Courtney Cheetham, saw some positive signs in a 48-32 defeat at the hands of Pinkerton Academy at the H. Dana Taylor Gymnasium.

“It was an improvement from our last couple of games,” Cheetham said of her 9-7 squad. “We started off the season being kind of a typical Merrimack team, pretty tough, pretty gritty. And I think we lost sight of that a little bit, but I think we kind of showed that again. Which was nice.”

You could tell that by the sense of relief on the look of Pinkerton coach Lani Buskey. Her 15-1 team led pretty much wire to wire, but the ‘Hawks were hanging around for the better part of three-plus quarters, and it was just 24 hours after a big Astros win over Bedford.

“This was not supposed to be an easy win and it turned out not to be an easy win,” said Buskey, who got her top players doing their jobs as senior center Brooke Kane had 23 points and Madison Mahoney 16. “(Cheetham) teaches fundamental defense and they’re scrappy. To have a back-to-back and have Merrimack be the tail end of it was not a fun experience, but I thought it was good for us. It was good as a reminder, these experiences allow us to go a little bit deeper into the playoffs.”

Pinkerton jumped out to a 6-0 lead, was up 15-7 after one, 24-15 at the half, and 35-25 after three. But, during one sequence, had a Theresa Twardosky 3-point attempt gone in, the ‘Hawks would’ve been within six, 36-30, with just under seven minutes to play. Instead, Pinkerton went on an 8-0 run, keyed by a Allison Ingalls trey, and it was 44-27 with 5:01 to play. Twardosky finished with 13 points while Riley Crampton added seven for the hosts.

“I’ve been having conversations with (Twardosky) about what are good 3s, what are bad 3’s,” Cheetham said. “That’s a big difference in the game righ there, and we’re still learning that. Those are just teachable moments for us. It would’ve been nice to be down just six, but instead I use it as a teachable moment for them.”

That’s because the Tomahawks lose just one senior, Samantha D’Amico, to graduation, so nearly the entire team should be back. They’ll be a factor next year, and you can bet with plenty of spunk to boot.

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