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After spectacular comeback, Pinkerton falls in overtime

Tuesday, March, 10 By Alan Siegel
Staff writer

HOOKSETT — Like a stubborn boxer, Pinkerton refused to go down.

“We wanted to win it,” junior guard AJ Guidi said.

The Astros trailed by nine points in the fourth quarter. They still fought back to force overtime.

“There was a little bit of desperation among the girls,” coach John Barry said.

Unfortunately, desperation could only take them so far. In the end, sixth-seeded Trinity defeated second-seeded Pinkerton, 45-44, in last night’s Class L semifinals at Southern New Hampshire University. The Astros (20-4) had a chance to take the lead late in regulation, but missed a pair of free throws with 10.3 seconds left.

“I’m proud of them,” said Barry, who cited his team’s shooting — they went 14 of 56 from the floor — as one reason for its struggles. “We had open looks a lot of times. We missed a lot of stuff. We missed some heartbreaking stuff. Those kind of things happen. It’s just the way the ball rolls.”

In the fourth, it seemed to be rolling Pinkerton’s way. Behind 30-22 with less than four minutes on the clock, the Astros made their move. Junior point guard Laura Pierce (9 points) hit a 3-pointer at 3:44 to make it 30-25. About 40 seconds later, after Guidi gobbled up Karima Gabriel’s missed free throw, senior guard Steph Sayward (6 points) banked in a 3-pointer from the top of the key to make it 30-28.

Pierce, who was tremendous as time ticked away, then made perhaps the best individual play of the evening. With 2:42 left, she stole an inbounds pass at midcourt, raced toward the hoop, hit a driving layup and got fouled. She misfired at the line, but the score was tied.

“They suddenly realized, ‘wait a minute we could conceivably lose this game,’” Barry said of his team.

After Samantha Monohon’s 15-foot jumper gave the Pioneers a short-lived 32-30 lead at 2:24, Sayward hit another three.

Finally, after Gabriel’s old fashioned three-point play put Trinity up 35-33, Pinkerton senior forward Jill Johnston sank a jumper to tie it up with 1:07 left.

“A little bit of it was the realization that we better get our act together quick,” Barry said.

The Astros, who trailed 19-13 at the break, were upset at themselves.

“At halftime,” Guidi said, “everybody was down.”

Guidi said at that point, they decided not to go quietly. Unfortunately for the Astros, their determination wasn’t quite enough.

With the score knotted at 41 in the extra frame, the Pioneers used a mini 4-0 run to take control. Guidi swished a three with two seconds on the clock, but out of timeouts, there wasn’t anything more Pinkerton could do.

“If something happened here or there, if a call went this way or that way, it could’ve been different,” Barry said. “But it wasn’t. I’m proud of the girls.”