MANCHESTER, NH – With a 40-27 home victory Wednesday night, the Trinity High School girls basketball team was able to put a recent three-game losing streak in the rearview mirror.
Hosting 1-4 Keene, the 1-3 Pioneers, who hadn’t won since edging cross-city rival Manchester Central, 47-45 in the season opener on Dec. 10, rode an 18 point second quarter into halftime then harnessed that momentum to stave off repeated attempts by the Blackbirds to make a second-half run to secure the 13-point triumph in front of the home faithful.
“They went on a run and kept going, that’s pretty much it,” said Keene head coach Stacey Massiah. “They have a couple good bigs there, and (Achol Tour), they utilize her very well, but honestly, it just came down to they wanted it more and obviously we didn’t want it tonight.”
Tour, a junior center, led the effort with 12 points while her sister Adut, a freshman, added 9 markers. Sophomore guard Dakoda Correia dropped 10 points while pacing the team throughout the winning effort.
Though Massiah said he thought the game may have gotten a bit chippy, especially in the second half, Trinity head coach Kevin Fraser commended his team’s tight defense.
“I tell the girls all the time it starts with defense,” he said. “I mean, you’ve got to play tough defense, you’ve got to be up on the opponents offensive players not slacking off, you’ve got to play hard, that’s what it comes down to.”
And hard the Pioneers played Wednesday, showing positive progress, especially among the young players still getting acclimated to varsity play, said Fraser.
“We’re a young team. You know, we have two freshmen and a sophomore who usually start, so my expectation is we keep improving as the year goes on and that we compete, that’s the biggest thing,” he said. “We’ve really only been out of one game so far, and two games in a row (Xxxxxx ) we were right there … but if the girls just stick with what they can do, it usually turns out pretty successful.”
Now 2-3 heading into the holiday vacation, the Pioneers charge out of the break with three road games in five days, first traveling to Londonderry for a 7 p.m. clash on Monday, Jan. 3, then heading to Concord for a 6:30 p.m. matchup on Wednesday, Jan. 3 and then trekking to Dover for a 6:30 p.m. contest with the Green Wave on Friday the 7th. Trinity returns home to host 3-3 Exeter on Monday, Jan. 10 at 6:30 p.m.
