Cards end streak

Friday, January 13, 2012

Photo by Jodie Andruskevich - Bishop Guertin's Meghan Green and Winnacunnet's Carly Gould battle for a rebound in Tuesday night's match up at BG.

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Photo by Jodie Andruskevich - BG guard Megan Kerutis drives to the basket as Winnacunnet's Melissa MacLeod defends on the play in action in Nashua on Tuesday evening.

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Photo by Jodie Andruskevich - BG guard Megan Kerutis drives to the basket as Winnacunnet's Melissa MacLeod defends on the play in action in Nashua on Tuesday evening.

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Photo by Jodie Andruskevich - Bishop Guertin's Meghan Green and Winnacunnet's Carly Gould battle for a rebound in Tuesday night's match up at BG.

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For 84 games, spanning nearly four years, the Winnacunnet High School girls basketball team always had the answer. Tuesday night at Bishop Guertin High School, the Warriors didn’t have answer for Meghan Green.

The 6-foot Cardinals center scored 37 points and grabbed 27 rebounds in a performance for the ages, and Bishop Guertin knocked off the five-time defending Division I champions from Hampton 74-66 before a packed gym.

When it was over, Green said it was just another game. If she’s right, future opponents had better watch out.

In the second half of a game in which she never left the floor, Green scored 26 points and was 12 for 15 from the floor. She also grabbed 16 second-half rebounds.

Over the years, Winnacunnet’s pressure defense and superior conditioning would wear teams down. Last night, the Cardinals seem to beat the Warriors at their own game.

“We pushed the ball and never slowed it down,” Green said. “That’s what we do best. The best way to beat their press is to push the ball and get as many attempts as you can.”

The Cardinals came out confident, jumping to an early 7-0 lead. But by midway through the second quarter Winnacunnet seemed to be gaining control and opened an eight-point lead.

But BG fought back to within 30-27 at halftime, took a 36-34 lead on a Green offensive rebound, then led by as many as nine late in the third quarter.

Down by as many as 10 early in the fourth quarter, Winnacunnet rallied to within five points with two minutes left. But the Warriors couldn’t stop Green, and a three-point play by freshman guard Meghan Kerutis with less than a minute left drove in the final nail.

Sophomore point guard Jamie Sherburne came up big for the Cardinals with 15 points, and helped the Cardinals from turning the ball over. They had just 13 in the game, three fewer than the Warriors.

“Things didn’t go our way tonight,” said Winnacunnet senior guard Kirsten O’Neil, who led the Warriors with 21 points. “We got a little tired and tried to play through it.

“They were bent over too, but timeouts help, halftime helps, a little water helps.”

“It’s a difficult loss, compounded by the 84 wins,” Winnacunnet coach Ed Beattie said o the end of the streak. “It’s a loss, not an abnormal thing in Division I.”

For some teams, maybe. The last time Winnacunnet lost was at Merrimack in the final regular-season game in 2008. The Warriors went on to pound the same Merrimack team into submission 10 days later in the semifinals.

“Every game is a new game,” said Beattie, whose team will host BG on Feb. 21. “We need to make some adjustments and do some things better. If you don’t make your free throws, don’t make you lay ups and don’t box out you’re going to lose.”

The challenge for Bishop Guertin coach Scott Hazelton, whose Cardinals improved to 7-0 in the division, is to get his team to play with the same intensity every night.

“We practice really hard and that paid off (Tuesday),” Hazelton said. “It was a high-paced game and both teams got a little tired. Our girls are in shape, and we need to get in better shape.”