By Chris Paul
The first year coach Jon Doherty of the Londonderry High School Girls’ Basketball team had two exciting games in his first NHIAA Division I State Championship last week. His Lady Lancers were seeded as the number 13 seed to start and had to face the number four seed to extend his season and the team’s position in the state finals.
The LHS squad had their first game of the post season against Concord High School in the state capital on Tuesday night, Feb. 8, and wound up with a nail biting 41-40 victory, to extend their tournament run into the quarterfinals.
The two teams had met in the regular season, and Londonderry came away with a close 48-46 win in December.
In the first round game, the Lady Lancers kept pace with the Crimson Tide in a low-scoring 9-9 opening quarter.
The final quarter had the Concord girls’ leading the LHS squad by six-points with under a minute to go in the game, but Londonderry turned the tables with a 10-2 fun in the final quarter and held on for the win.
Olivia Chau came up big in the final minute of the game, getting the go-ahead lay-up with less than five seconds remaining on the clock.
Chau was one of the highest scorers in the league, with most of her baskets coming from the free throw line and from lay ups. Chau finished the season at about 80 percent from the free throw line according to Dorherty. She is also the coaches nomination for the state’s for Player of the Year honors.
Freshman Kate Sloper also had a large portion of the points in the game for the Lancers. The tough guard scored 15-points in the victory. Junior guard Jordon Furlong had seven-points and Shannon Ball finished with two.
The celebration of the come-from-behind win was short lived unfortunately, when the LHS squad headed to Nashua on Friday night, Feb. 11, for a quarterfinal game against Bishop Guertin.
In that game against the number five seeded Lady Cardinals the Lady Lancers had their season come to a close with a 75-45 finish.
The game was a lot closer than the end results shows. The Lancer team was still in the game with three minutes left in the third quarter and a 36-31 score.
The depth of the BG bench was the deciding factor in the game. The Londonderry girls’ got tired and were not able to keep pace.
Despite the loss, Doherty is very optimistic about the future of the team with a lot of very good players sticking around for next season and a few coming up from the eighth grade class. He’s excited about adding some depth to his bench next year also.