MANCHESTER — The championships have become old hat. But you wouldn't know it by the celebrations that follow them.
The Winnacunnet High School girls basketball team won its fifth straight Division I title Saturday night, pulling away late from a game Londonderry squad to win, 55-46, at Southern New Hampshire University.
Point guard Kirsten O'Neil led all scorers with 17 points, leading four Warriors in double figures. Forwards Sam Corcoran (10 points, 13 rebounds) and Carly Gould (12 points, 15 rebounds), both had double-doubles.
And everyone got to celebrate afterward.
"I'm ecstatic," said O'Neil, "like I've never felt this before. I'm shaking. But it was all worth it. The 110 days we put into this? It was worth it. The running we did? It was worth it."
In a free-flowing, intense game where talent was on display and momentum shifted from possession to possession, the Warriors (22-0) led by just one point, 41-40, through three quarters. But they opened the fourth with a 6-0 spurt and the Lancers (19-3) never got closer than four the rest of the way.
The win extended the program's win streak to 70 games against Division I competition, but this title — coming after the graduation of standout guard Tiffany Ruffin and seven other seniors — was hardly a given back in November.
"This team's real special to me," said coach Ed Beattie. "I don't think anybody believed in them as much as (assistant coach Cassie) Turcotte and I did, and that started last summer."
"It's a great feeling," said Corcoran, one of just two seniors on the team. "This was my last game. I'm not going to play in college; I'm going to study nursing. ...; It feels great that my last game was this one."
The five straight titles match the accomplishment of a unified Nashua High School in the mid-to-late 1980s. The coach of those Nashua teams, John Fagula, is now coaching Londonderry. But while his current team's defense was strong — 26 forced turnovers — it shot just 29 percent from the floor, and standout forward Savanna Butterfield (10 points) couldn't quite get untracked.
"I kept telling them, with the defense that we play, if we just have a decent shooting game ...; tonight, unfortunately, was not one of those nights," said Fagula.
The Lancers were the only team that the Warriors did not beat by a double-digit margin in the regular season. And for 24 minutes Saturday, they were in Winnacunnet's face like a pushy salesman.
But after sharpshooter Avi Morrison (12 points) gave Winnacunnet the lead back with her fourth 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter, putting her team up 41-40, the Warriors put their stamp on the game in the opening few minutes of the fourth.
Another Corcoran rebound led to a fast break, with Morrison passing to a streaking O'Neil. After some full-court pressure forced a turnover, Gould grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back for a 45-40 lead.
When Gould scored again, cutting through the lane and finishing off a pass from Corcoran, the score was 47-40 with less than five minutes to play. Danielle Crutcher (12 points) kept Londonderry in range with a three, but Anna Sullivan made her only hoop of the night a big one, and the Warriors protected the ball and made their free throws after that.
"It's that fourth-quarter push we have, that fourth-quarter attitude," said Corcoran.
In defeat, the Lancers did win plenty of respect.
"That was the best game I've played in all year," said O'Neil. "They played great. I give them so much credit, so much respect. It was probably a real good game to watch."
It sure was.
The Warriors started fast, with Corcoran grabbing a rebound after the opening possession and passing half the length of the court to O'Neil for a fast-break layup, a blink-and-you-miss-it play that got the fans in the packed gym involved early.
Two 3-pointers by Morrison to start the second quarter extended the early Winnacunnet lead to 17-7, but the Lancers stormed right back. Behind Butterfield, they crafted a 17-4 run, taking the lead for the first time, 22-21, on two Butterfield free throws.
Morrison's third three of the half pulled the Warriors back even, and they took a 30-29 lead to the locker room despite an uncharacteristic 13 turnovers.
The outcome wouldn't be settled until the fourth quarter. But it would be settled.
"We just wanted it so bad. It wasn't in our mindset to lose," said O'Neil. "We just cut it loose. Losing would be the worst thing."
Another strong finish, another championship — and one to be cherished by a program that's got a bunch of them to compare to one another.
"There were a lot of doubters," said Beattie. "Everyone kept waiting for us to lose, and these girls just said they weren't going to."
Winnacunnet 55, Londonderry 46
LONDONDERRY (46)
Moloney 1-0-2, Crutcher 5-1-12, Uphold 1-3-5, Butterfield 3-4-10, Simpson 0-2-2, Bolduc 1-3-6, Johnson 3-1-9. Totals: 14-14-46.
WINNACUNNET (55)
O'Neil 3-10-17, Sullivan 1-0-2, DiPietro 1-0-2, Gould 5-2-12, Corcoran 5-0-10, Morrison 4-0-12. Totals: 19-12-55.
Londonderry 7 22 11 6 — 46
Winnacunnet 11 19 11 14 — 55
3-point field goals — Londonderry 4: Johnson 2, Crutcher, Bolduc. Winnacunnet 5: Morrison 4, O'Neil. Fouled out — Uphold, Gould.
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