Derryfield girls soar past Plymouth, into quarterfinals

MANCHESTER, NH – After completing a 15-3 regular season and earning the No. 3 seed in the Division-II playoffs, the Derryfield School girls basketball team kept its collective foot on the gas Wednesday night.

Opening the playoffs against No. 14 Plymouth (7-11), the third-ranked Cougars (15-3), soundly dispatched the visitors, 46-18, to earn a quarterfinal rematch against sixth-seeded Merrimack Valley (13-5), which delivered Derryfield its first loss of the season last month.

To get there, the Cougars leaned into a balanced effort with all involved playing stifling full-court defense throughout the contest and eight players contributing to the scoring.

“One of our biggest strengths is our depth,” said Derryfield head coach Courtney Cheetham. “We played 10 kids, and we try to go in there in little bursts so we can play as hard as we can while we’re out there and try to use that to our advantage.”

A testament to that depth, Ella LaFlamme, Angie Kenison and Emma Sloper each came off the bench and were the Cougars’ top-three scorers with 10, seven and six points, respectively.

Starters Chloe Bremburg, Katie McCormick, Anna Fazelat and Tia Ferdinando each provided five points, and Bre McCabe added a three to contribute to the final score.

Though the Cougars entered the fourth quarter with a 28-10 lead, they continued to play uptempo ball right into the final minute.

“I thought it was a collective effort today,” said Cheetham. “Chloe Bremburg had a really strong fourth quarter. Angie Kenison had a couple big shots when she subbed in, which kind of ignited us a little when we weren’t scoring as well, and Ella LaFlamme has been doing a really good job at working to get better every day.”

“If we’re going to use our depth, we’ve got to continue to play fast,” said Cheetham. “It’s a mentality. We tend to be kind of nice and we lack confidence at times, so part of that is just trying to gain confidence and, especially at playoff time, come out here and do what we need to do.”

The quarterfinal contest against Merrimack Valley is tentatively scheduled for Saturday at 7 p.m., though the contest may be moved to earlier in the day, possibly 5 p.m.

Though Cheetham said her players came out a little flat in their 57-35 setback to Merrimack Valley on Feb. 14, she hopes they’ll learn from that contest and come out better prepared this time around.

“We just focus on what we need to do and what’s in our control, and just try to build our confidence,” said Cheetham. “Surprisingly, a team that’s had so much success, they’re not always super confident kids because they’re perfectionists and they’re really strong academically, and they want to do really well.

“They go 3-for-10, and they think that’s terrible, I think they go 3-for-10 and that’s pretty good, right, in the basketball world,” she added. “So we just keep focusing on what Derryfield needs to do to improve a little bit everyday, and they’ve been working really hard, and we’re just going to keep doing what we’ve been doing.”