Roger Brown
MaxPreps.com
When is tournament experience overrated? When you have a talented freshman like Brooke Springfield on your roster, that’s when.
Springfield tossed in a game-high 24 points to lead the Conant High School girls' basketball team to a 46-40 triumph over Campbell in Monday night’s Class M championship game.
“She’s young and she got a lot of pressure from Campbell,” Conant coach Nick Hill told the Manchester Union Leader. “They play hard defense and they’re well-disciplined, but Brooke plays with a cool head.”
Springfield, a guard, made seven of her 12 field goal attempts, and nine of 10 shots from the free throw line.
Campbell point guard Jennifer Evans scored 10 points and was the only other player on either team to reach double figures.
Top-seeded Conant led 20-4 after one quarter and 24-15 at halftime.
Conant won its fourth Class M title and completed its season with a 19-3 record.
Fifth-seeded Campbell pulled within five, 43-38, with 1:30 to play, but Springfield sealed the victory by making two free throws in the final minute.
CLASS S: Top-seeded Groveton opened the second half with a 10-0 run and posted a 40-22 victory over third-seeded Portsmouth Christian in Monday’s Class S championship game.
It was Groveton’s 12th state title since Class S was formed in 1978.
Sophomore Emily Pelletier scored 19 points and pulled down 12 rebounds for Groveton, which completed its season with a 21-1 record.
Portsmouth Christian, which won the 2004 Class S championship, committed 26 turnovers in the loss and finished 19-3.
Groveton held Portsmouth Christian to five points in each of the first two quarters, seven in the third and five in the fourth.
Boys Basketball: Top Seeds Fall
Upsets were the theme in the Class I quarterfinals Sunday, when top-seeded Oyster River and second-seeded Portsmouth were each eliminated at the University of New Hampshire’s Lundholm Gymnasium.
Ninth-seeded Pembroke Academy overcame a five-point deficit midway through the fourth quarter and knocked off Oyster River, 45-44; and 10th-seeded Monadnock surged to a nine-point halftime lead and held on to beat Portsmouth 54-51.
Oyster River (19-1) entered the game as the only unbeaten team in Class I. Portsmouth was also upset by a No. 10 seed last year, when it lost to Hanover in the Class I championship game.
Pembroke will face fourth-seeded Hanover in Wednesday’s first semifinal. Monadnock will take on third-seeded John Stark in Wednesday’s other game.
The Class I championship game will be held Saturday.
Wrestling: Timberlane Finishes Strong
Timberlane posted a record-tying sixth New England wrestling championship at Lowell (Mass.) High School last weekend.
The Owls earned 73 points in the 15-team event. Mt. Anthony (Vermont) was second with 64, and Belfast (Maine) and Lowell finished tied for third with 48. Mt. Anthony has also won six New England titles.
Timberlane has won three of the last four New England championships.
“We’re a small state, but we’ve shown our top wrestlers can go up against the best and compete at a high level,” Timberlane coach Barry Chooljian said.
Brian Nicoll’s first-place finish in the heavyweight division highlighted Timberlane’s performance. The Owls received a second-place finish from Cam Sullivan in the 103-pound weight class. Both Nicoll and Sullivan are juniors.
Salem’s Trevor Dearden was named the meet’s Outstanding Wrestler and was inducted into the New England Wrestling Hall of Fame after he won the 125-pound title for the third consecutive season.
Track and Field: Barbiaz Sets State Record
Milford’s Dwight Barbiaz established a New Hampshire record by clearing 6 feet, 9 inches in the high jump at last weekend’s New England Track and Field Championships held in Boston.
Merrimack’s 4x800 relay team – Alex Beaulieu, Brian Taison, Steve Harshman and Billy Godfrey – also set a state record by finishing in 8 minutes, 1 second.
