Manchester Memorial Girls Defeat Nashua North 52-48

Manchester Memorial's Amra Elezovich and Allie Hartford

Posted on February 5th 2012

by Julia Maldonado

A fourth quarter surge by Manchester Memorial gave the Crusaders a hard fought 52-48 win over the Nashua North Titans on Friday night. Manchester Memorial and Nashua North entered the game sporting identical 9-2 records, but it was Memorial, led by freshman Peace Kabari’s 16 points and four steals and senior forward Amra Elezovic’s 15 points, including two three pointers, that came out on top on the night.

Nashua North enjoyed the momentum early on in the game and displayed their long-range shooting skill with four 3-pointers in the opening quarter. Senior center Emily Boots commanded the paint for the Titans on both ends, registering two blocks and four rebounds to help her team take an 18-12 lead after the first quarter.

Even though the deficit was only six points Memorial junior guard Allie Hartford’s expressed that her team did not start off on the right foot.

“We came out a little hesitant, said Hartford. "It’s been (like that) the past couple of games. After the BG loss, we were a little upset because it was such a big game. We’re still getting back in the flow.”

The second quarter echoed the first, with Nashua North converting a higher percentage of shots than Memorial, and drawing enough fouls on the floor to earn 1-and-1 opportunities towards the end of the first half.

Nevertheless, Memorial remained close behind and was able to close the gap to four and bring the half to a close with a 28-24 score.

The Memorial team that came out of the locker room took the halftime talk to heart, and approached the second half with a greater sense of urgency.

Elezovic stated that Memorial coach Jack Quirk told his players to ‘look for the open person, move the ball around, less dribbling, never stand still."

Speed is a crucial component of the Crusaders’ style of play, and what lacked in the first half, they made up in the second.

We’re more of a ‘push the ball, go go’ team," said Elezovic. “We like to get steals and go to the hoop. We play fast paced, and try to get the officials to call fouls by driving (to the basket).”

Memorial began to push the ball faster down the floor, and saw their offense begin to flourish. A Kabari layup followed by a Hartford 3-pointer gave Memorial their first lead in the game early in the third quarter. The Titans, however, responded to the pressure with baskets of their own. Nashua North senior guard Brittni Morton sank two threes of her own to lift the Titans back on top 39-36 after the third.

The Crusaders defense was the difference in the fourth quarter, ignited by Peace Kabari’s two, and almost three, consecutive steals converted into fast break layups. Memorial surpassed Nashua North’s on the scoreboard, and was able to extend the lead to seven with 2:03 on the clock. The Titans’ applied double-teams on defense, but were unable to conjure up enough offensively. The Crusaders persevered after a slow start and earned the 52-48 victory.

Following the game, Allie Hartford described the lessons learned from their Tuesday night defeat at Dover, and how Friday’s game against Nashua North presented a similar challenge and the opportunity to come away with a more positive result.

We had a tough loss against Dover,” admitted Hartford. “We were down in the first half, we needed to come back and have a more intense second half. We didn’t do that (on Tuesday), so I thought since we didn’t do that against Dover, we should do that (tonight).

Memorial’s only two losses of the season both came in the span of a week, and in a game that seemed to be headed in the same direction against a sharp-shooting Nashua North team, Hartford and her teammates were able to turn that around.

“I’m not losing again," said Hartford. I didn’t want to lose again. Tonight was a crucial game to win.”

Memorial’s leading scorers in descending order were Kabari (16 points), Elezovic (15 points) and Hartford (9 points). Nashua North was lead by Morton (12 points) junior guard Genevieve Gosselin (9 points) senior guard Katelyn Roeser (6 points) and Emily Boots (6 points)