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Last-minute shot won't fall, Pelham upset bid falls short in semis

MANCHESTER — Pelham got all it wanted as the final seconds ticked off the Southern New Hampshire field house scoreboard.

A chance.

Staring down No. 1 ranked and undefeated Lebanon Tuesday night, No. 4 Pelham was inbounding the ball with 4.7 seconds left down 36-35.

Those in attendance collectively held their breath as the Pythons let fly a wide open 3-pointer from the left corner. But the shot clanked off the top of the backboard before rocketing its way out towards the top of the key. Players from both teams sprinted after the loose ball, but it didn’t matter who chased it down.

The final buzzer had already went off.

Pelham got the opportunity it wanted at the end of the game, but it was Lebanon who squeaked out the 36-35 victory and earned itself a spot in the New Hampshire Division 2 championship game. The Raiders are back in the title game after winning it all in 2013, and they will play No. 6 seed Hollis-Brookline Friday night at 7 p.m.

Pelham and Lebanon did not play each other during the regular season, but put on a show last night.

“We got the shot we wanted,” said Pelham coach Bob Shepard. “The poor kid is devastated but she shouldn’t be. She took the shot, and you get the opportunity to make it right?

“We had such a difficult time scoring all day. We had some opportunities down low at the end, but the ball went in and out. We weren’t hitting on our outside shots today. We thought the outside shot was going to be available against Lebanon, but we couldn’t get any of them to fall.”

Senior Lilly Shlimon hit Pelham’s lone 3-pointer of the game with 4:40 left in the fourth to put her team up 31-30. Lebanon (21-0) got free throws by freshman Rebecca Wright to put the Raiders up 36-35 with 53.3 seconds left before Pelham held the ball the rest of the way.

The Pythons did not want to wait until the final seconds to put up a shot. They had a drive to the basket that was blocked out of bounds, and another drive where Lebanon had a foul to give and used it.

Fouls hurt Pelham all night. Lebanon had six total fouls against while Pelham had 17, and the Pythons were tripled in free throw attempts 18-6.

“I told our girls to just try and ignore it,” said Shepard. “We knew we wanted to be extra physical here, so we knew that we were going to pick up some fouls.”

Junior Danielle Sirois led the way with 14 points and seven rebounds for Pelham. Jillian Schwab added six points, and both Shlimon and Olivia Gagnon had five points. 

The Pythons finished their great season at 20-4. 

“We knew how good Lebanon was defensively coming into this game, and typically these playoff games are more low-scoring,” said Shepard. “Generally we were scoring around 60 points a night during the regular season, but I told the kids that come playoffs if we could get to 40 we could win.

“But we couldn’t get to 40 tonight.”