Goffstown girls basketball rolls past Milford into D2 title game

MANCHESTER – Deanna Goodwin believes her Goffstown High School girls basketball team is doing what every team wants to do come playoff time.

The No. 6 Grizzlies are playing their best basketball of the year, and after Thursday night’s 43-23 win  over No. 2 Milford at Southern New Hampshire University, Goffstown will play for a championship for the first time in 27 years.

Kathryn Howe was 5 of 9 from behind the 3-point line for a game-high 15 points and Goffstown held Milford to 13 percent shooting from the field. The Grizzlies (16-5), who last won a title in 1988, will take on No. 1 Coe-Brown in the championship game Saturday at 7 p.m. at SNHU.

“I think we’re doing a great job peaking at the right moment,” Goodwin said. “We like the team concept and defensively, we really focus on that. A lot of communication, a lot of help, everybody knows there is someone right there to step up and help.”

For Milford (18-3), it was a third straight trip to the final four without advancing to the title game. After going 20 years without a playoff win, and 30 years with a semifinal appearance, the Spartans came up short of making their first championship game since 1981.

“I think this game was far more emotional than I had anticipated for these girls,” Milford coach Rich Parent said. “Having been here two other times, I don’t think I really appreciated how emotional it was going to be for them to come back.

“We ran into a buzzsaw (Thursday). It felt like they were shooting a very high percentage and we couldn’t make a shot. Their defense wasn’t anything we didn’t expect, it was just our inability to score. We slowly fell to pieces.”

Sarah Doherty added 11 points and seven rebounds for Goffstown and Rene Roggenbuck grabbed 11 boards to go with her five points, as the Grizzlies outrebounded Milford 38-26. Goffstown also had a huge advantage from behind the 3-point line, going 7 of 14 while the Spartans made just 1 of their 17 attempts.

“We have a few other shooters who didn’t need to take too many shots,” Goodwin said. “It’s nice to have that option, because 3-pointers can be killers if you hit them. That’s part of our offense and we give them the green light to let them fly. We trust our shooters.”

Kaitlyn Matthews led the Spartans with eight points and six rebounds as Milford fell behind early. Goffstown ended the first quarter on a 12-1 run that saw the Grizzlies take a 15-3 lead into the second.

Milford was able to get back in it, cutting the lead to seven at halftime, but things began to unravel early in the third quarter, as the Grizzlies opened the half on a 10-1 run to take a 31-15 lead.

“I think they hit a couple of 3s, and we got right back out of our game again,” Parent said. “We weren’t able to execute. When we came in at halftime, it felt like we had finally gathered ourselves. It felt like we’d gotten things under control, and they came out and hit those 3s early, and as soon as they did that … it felt like we were doing what we talked about doing and they were still making them.”

A 3 by Howe with 1:10 left in the third made it a 37-17 lead for Goffstown, and the lead grew to as many as 22 in the fourth.

“All we talked about was settling our nerves,” Goodwin said. “If we had any, they came out in that second quarter. We had a few more turnovers. We talked about having patience on the offensive end and finding the open shooter, and I think we did that in the second half.”

Goffstown will face Coe-Brown for the second time this season, having lost to the Bears by 11 points on Jan. 9.

“We had three good quarters, but unfortunately we had one bad one,” Goodwin said of that game. Honestly, we’ve prepared so much for (the semifinal) game, I haven’t thought too much about it. We’re just going to take a deep breath, enjoy the experience and do the best we can.”