Junior low-post standout Ashley Berube proved to be an unstoppable force for the defending Division I champion Londonderry High girls’ basketball squad in its 70-36 pummeling of the Merrimack High Lady Tomahawks at LHS last Friday night, Jan. 23.
Berube was dominant in netting 19 points and hauling down 19 rebounds in pacing her talented contingent to its sixth consecutive D-I victory. The win bounced first-year varsity coach Nick Theos’ team’s divisional record up to 8-1 and ended the 2-7 Merrimack squad’s modest two-game winning streak.
The visitors managed to keep pace with their powerful hosts in the first period, with the Lady Lancers grasping a four-point lead of 18-14 when that stanza came to an end.
But Theos’ troop outscored its guest by a 17-4 tally in the second period and held a 35-18 advantage at the halftime break.
The Lady Lancers then went on to outscore the Merrimack mob by margins of 15-6 and 20-12 in the third and fourth quarters respectively to collect the lopsided win.
The victorious hosts received scoring contributions from 10 sources, with Berube pacing the charge with her great numbers and Katie Balcom contributing 10 points. Jackie Luckhardt was good for eight points, Kat Wells and Jenna Conroy each netted seven, and Brittany Roche sank a pair of three-point shots in contributing six points to the LHS evening of hoops.
The ladies drove their Division I record up to 9-1 with a 53-28 downing of the Nashua High South Lady Purple Panthers in the Gate City on a snowy Monday night, Jan. 26.
The LHS crew’s seventh consecutive Division I victory made the host Lady Panthers’ divisional mark 3-7 as the Nashua cagers suffered the fourth defeat in their last five D-I contests.
The team will be tested again Jan. 29 when they travel to Salem to face the 4-6 Blue Devils, and on Feb. 6 at home when they host the 5-5 Winnacunnet Warriors.
Next Friday night, Feb. 6, the girls and boys squads will visit their rivals at Pinkerton Academy. The Astro girls currently have a 7-2 Division 1 record.