DURHAM, NH – From day one, the Derryfield School varsity girls basketball team prepared for this moment.
Three months after losing on the road at pre-season favorite Pembroke in the regular-season opener – 43-36 on Dec. 12 – the Cougars found themselves on the opposite bench from the Spartans once again, and this time, they made the opportunity count.
Competing Saturday in the NHIAA Division-II state championship game at the University of New Hampshire’s Lundholm gymnasium in Durham, the second-ranked Cougars upset the top-seeded Spartans, 57-41, to claim the D-II title.
“I felt like there was a lot of pressure on (Pembroke) after an undefeated season, so we just tried to enjoy the experience,” said Derryfield head coach Courtney Cheetham. “Every day, this year, we talked about being in the moment, being mindful and having gratitude. So that’s all we talked about before the game, enjoy the experience, have gratitude … be confident and enjoy every second because you never know when you’re going to have another opportunity like this.”
The Cougars made every second count.
After clawing out a gritty 10-5 first-quarter lead, their shots started to fall in the second quarter, making 64-percent of their attempts – 57-percent from beyond the arc – as they went on a 23-12 run heading into halftime.
“We tried to do the same thing all game, right, stay calm, be confident, play hard, and I think in the second quarter we definitely hit some shots to help separate,” said Cheetham.
Derryfield continued its hot shooting in the second half, hitting 2-of-3 three-point shots while extending their lead 22 with three minutes left in the third quarter.
“Our biggest goal, going into the second half, was just to stay calm and minimize the run they were going to go on and just keep our lead and build on it,” said sophomore point guard Anna Fazelat.
Pembroke continued to battle throughout the fourth quarter, but the Cougars were not to be denied on this occasion as they held on for the 16-point triumph.
“Courtney did such a great job developing her team all year long,” said first-year Pembroke head coach Noah Cummings. “And they were as sharp as they could possibly be, and on the biggest stage.”
Fazelat led the way, scoring a team-high 15 points while adding six assists, four rebounds and four steals to seal the complete effort.
“She’s a heck of a point guard, and sometimes people overlook her because she doesn’t always fill the scoring column, and she could, right? But she just drops dimes to her teammates, and if they cut her off, she makes those threes and it only makes us better.”
Junior standouts Holly Dufoe and Angie Kenison added 14 and 13 points, respectively, and classmate Emma Sloper capped the scoring with six markers in the contest, while adding nine rebounds.
Ella LaFlamme, the team’s lone senior, scored nine points, a fitting conclusion for a a student athlete who put the work in, to be her best when it mattered most, said Cheetham.
“Last year, she was probably our sixth man of the year,” said Cheetham. “This year, she stepped into a starting role, and she practices so hard … it’s the unseen hours, right? She wakes up at 5:30 tries to go to the gym, tries to get some shots up, tries to run to be ready for moments like this, and I think that leadership is unmatched.”
Cheetham said she and her players prepped all season to have what it takes to defeat Pembroke, when the two teams met again.
“That’s how we play every day,” said Cheetham. “We’re not running a set necessarily to beat a team that’s middle of the pack, we’re running everything we can to beat the best team, so you’re ready when that moment happens, because the two days beforehand, that’s not where you’re going do it. You’re going to do it in all the unseen hours, all those minutes and days leading up.”
Indeed, the performance was the culmination of Cheetham’s dream for the program when she elevated it up from the comfortable confines of Division IV three years ago.
With less than 400 students, Derryfield School is the smallest high school in Division-II, something that didn’t phase Cheetham or her athletes one bit this season as they took on D-II’s top programs – each with significantly higher student populations from which to draw – week after week.
“Our coaching is great, and Courtney is awesome for getting us to this point,” said LaFlamme. “It’s great to see our progression throughout the last four year’s, but it’s also amazing to see the progression this year because we had a lot of new players, a lot of freshman, so to be here says a lot … best way to end my (high school) career.”
And with the Cougars likely to return 10 of 11 varsity players next season, the proverbial target is likely to be on their backs, something Cheetham doesn’t expect to faze her players.
“We just focus on what Derryfield needs to do,” she said. “Rankings are rankings. You know, (being pre-season favorites) would be a lot of respect for our kids, and they deserve that, but that’s not going to shape anything differently … We’re going to keep working, keep getting after it and we’re going to do everything we can to keep getting better.”
And that, in a nutshell, is the modern state of Derryfield girls basketball.
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