Skilled senior standouts Jackie Luckhardt and Kate Balcom know very well what it takes for a team to win a Division I girls’ basketball championship.
Both young women have been members of the Londonderry High girls’ hoop crews that have done so each of the last two winters.
So it should surprise nobody to find out that Luckhardt and Balcom rose to the challenge Friday night, Jan. 22, and helped to push their Lady Lancers to a 50-39 defeat of the Merrimack High Lady Tomahawks on that opponent’s home court.
That victory was the Lady Lancers’ sixth straight divisional success, and it gave them an 8-1 record in the D-I campaign.
Point-guard Luckhardt netted 21 points, snagged seven steals, and dished out six assists in the win over a Merrimack squad that had won three of its last four divisional games but slid under .500 to 4-5 with the defeat.
“She played amazing, leading the team from start to finish,” said LHS coach Nick Theos. “And she had a three-quarter-court basket taken away at the end of the first half because the referee said it came after the buzzer. But it looked good to me.”
Londonderry led by the modest margin of 24-19 at halftime, but they’d put the win away in half number two. They were up by double digits (39-29) going into the fourth period.
Balcom finished the contest with 12 points, six rebounds, and six steals. And as was the case with Luckhardt, Theos said, “She was also amazing. She ran the floor well and finished strong at the basket. Those two were the story.”
Theos also had praise for his squad’s bench players, saying, “Merrimack kept it close, but our bench kept those two motivated and they finally put Merrimack away. It was a tough game and a tough place to play in, but in the end we were just too athletic and that helped us get the win.”
The Lady Lancers’ D-I schedule then continued this past Monday night, Jan. 25, with a home game against a Nashua South contingent that came into action with a 5-4 divisional record and – just like Merrimack – having won three of its last four games.
The LHS bunch kept its winning streak rolling up to seven games with a 42-30 downing of South that wasn’t a work of art but was effective all the same.
Initial indications in this game were that the Lady Lancers might just plow their way to a blowout victory.
The hosts netted the first six points of the night, South finally tickled the twine with 4:30 to go in the first quarter, and Londonderry ended the period by scoring the last 10 points en route to a 16-2 lead.
But the LHS offense went to sleep through much of the second quarter and the Nashuans climbed back into the fray, outscoring their hosts by a 13-5 margin to leave the score at 21-15 in Londonderry’s favor at the break.
The Lady Lancers brought full-court defensive pressure through much of the second half and outscored their guests by an 11-4 tally to carry a solid, 32-19 advantage into the final stanza.
Londonderry’s Kelsey Coffey sank a three-point shot to open the fourth quarter, and the LHS lead bulged to 16 points at 35-19.
Although South battled to stay in the fray as Theos substituted players, the Nashuans never got their deficit down below double digits.
Balcom paced the LHS effort with 12 points, four boards, and three blocks, and Coffey was good for nine points. South senior guard Jocelyn Chaput – who is closing in on her 1,000th career point – led all scorers with 20 and is now just four points short of the milestone.
The Lady Lancers’ three-game week continued with a home game against Salem this Wednesday, Jan. 27, after Londonderry Times press time, and a road trip to the seacoast to play Winnacunnet in Hampton on Friday night.