After having its hopes of an undefeated Division I regular season disappear under the weight of consecutive losses to Bishop Guertin of Nashua and Bedford two weeks ago, the Pinkerton Academy girls’ basketball squad closed out its regular campaign last week with a couple of satisfying wins at home.
Coach John Barry’s Lady Astros were a full 24 points better than Manchester Memorial early in the week, and they avenged a holiday tournament loss to Salem by besting those Lady Blue Devils by 16 points a few days later. In the 64-40 lashing of Memorial on Tuesday, Feb. 19, Pinkerton won each quarterbutonlyheldmodest leads of 12-10 after one period and 24-18 at the half. However, the PA offense clicked more fully into gear in the second half as the hosts outscored their guests by a commanding 40-22 margin.
Sophomore forward Val Martin led the charge for Pinkerton by netting 18 points, and former Memorial cager Kayla Stacy scored 14 points against her old team. All in all, coach Barry’s Pinkerton bunch received points from 10 different sources. Two days later in Derry, the Lady Astros snared a 55- 39 win over Salem to finish up a 16-2 on the regular season.
Pinkerton netted the first seven points of the night and held leads of 15-11 after one period and 29-19 at the half time break. The hosts then went on to outscore their guests by a 26-20 tally in the second half to walk off with the win. Along with pleasing coach Barry with a far stronger defensive effort, the Lady Astros were paced offensively by 14 points apiece from Martin and Brandi Bonneau and 11 from Stacy.
The team headed into the playoffs this week as the number three seed, facing number 14 Manchester Memorial on Wednesday, Feb. 27, after the Nutfield News went to press.
