{"id":11658,"date":"2024-03-04T11:15:46","date_gmt":"2024-03-04T11:15:46","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"Pembroke-Girls-Basketball-Quarterfinal-54182281\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=11658","title":{"rendered":"Girls\u2019 basketball: Pembroke off to the D-II\u00a0semifinals after beating Bow for the third time this season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Bow
Bow guards Ella Trefethen (left) and Gabriella Tarsa surround Pembroke guard Anne Phillips during the second half of the Division II quarterfinals on Saturday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Bow
Bow guard Ella Trefethen (top) and Pembroke guard Kate Stephens fall over trying to chase down a loose basketball.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Pembroke
Pembroke forward Annelise Dexter (21) gets tangled up with Bow guard Bryana Szepan trying to secure a rebound during the second half of Saturday\u2019s Division II quarterfinal.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>

PEMBROKE \u2013 Over the previous two seasons, no team has caused Pembroke girls\u2019 basketball more disappointment than Bow. Each of the Spartans\u2019 last two years ended with a loss to the Falcons in the playoffs. <\/p>\n

But Saturday was different.<\/p>\n

Pembroke was the No. 3 seed, Bow the No. 6 seed. Pembroke had the pressure to win this time around, but the Spartans didn\u2019t seem fazed.<\/p>\n

Although the game was never out of reach for Bow \u2013 the Falcons even pulled to within one possession early in the fourth quarter \u2013 it was the Spartans who took home the victory, 55-44, and advanced to the Division II semifinals to face No. 2 Laconia on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

Pembroke (17-3) entered the playoffs having lost its final two games of the regular season. Perhaps it helped the Spartans reset and weather the storms from their opponents like they did on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people said, \u2018Well, Pembroke\u2019s struggling a little bit,\u2019 (but) we had to keep coming from behind and we had to keep composure all year,\u201d head coach Steve Langevin said. \u201cI think being in a lot of those situations, instead of blowing teams out and winning by 20 all the time, it\u2019s better to be in these tight games where you have to battle back and deal with some adversity.\u201d <\/p>\n

There was a noticeable calm about the Spartans from the opening tip, something Langevin said has sustained the group all season and helped propel them to Saturday\u2019s win.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly a couple of these kids have really been here very much, (but) they just have a calm about them most of the time,\u201d he said. \u201cWe did some not-so-smart things occasionally but, overall, they don\u2019t get frustrated; they don\u2019t lose it. \u2026 We try to stay even-keeled.\u201d <\/p>\n

Pembroke senior Annelise Dexter led the way offensively for the Spartans with 22 points and seven rebounds, while sophomore Kate Stephens (17 points, seven rebounds, four assists, three steals) and junior Kaitlin Arenella (nine points on three 3-pointers) also contributed offensively. Bow sophomore Ella Trefethen led the Falcons (14-6) with 16 points, while senior Juliette Tarsa had 10 and junior Bryana Szepan added eight.<\/p>\n

But it was the defensive play, particularly from Pembroke in the first half, that set the tone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted them to stay in front of people, and some people have strengths and weaknesses; we try to make sure they don\u2019t go to their strength,\u201d Langevin said. \u201cI thought we did a really, really good job, especially the first half, of doing that. \u2026 I thought we helped really well when they did get some penetration. We had people in there helping and making commitments to help, not just sticking their arm out, which contained them really well and allowed us to get that cushion.\u201d <\/p>\n

The win means a matchup with No. 2 Laconia (17-3) in the semifinals looms on Wednesday. The two teams didn\u2019t face each other during the season, but the Sachems are the only team that\u2019s beaten No. 1 Concord Christian so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to go and play our game,\u201d Langevin said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen Laconia; we played them in the preseason, so we know them pretty well. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are where we should be, and now it\u2019s whoever has the better game is going to get to the final, and at least we\u2019re there. If we\u2019d lost today, I think it would\u2019ve been a disappointment from the way we started the season to where we are now.\u201d <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Bow\u2019s season comes to an end, and the Falcons will miss out on a championship game appearance for the first time in three years. <\/p>\n

In the program\u2019s first season under head coach Cassidy Emerson, Bow showed steady improvement throughout the year. Losing three starters from last year\u2019s team and subsequently losing senior Sidney Roberge to injury forced Emerson to rely on some less-experienced players. That shift, she said, strongly helped improve the team cohesion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter who we were playing. It was 110% on the court at all times, and I think some of our players that didn\u2019t get as many minutes made it tough for me not to start them,\u201d Emerson said. \u201cJust the way we worked as a team and improved every single game throughout the season, it\u2019s good for our future. We\u2019re going to get there. This is exactly the dynamic and the environment that this team belongs in, so we\u2019ll get there. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we improved in every way possible this year, truly. Such a good group.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PEMBROKE \u2013 Over the previous two seasons, no team has caused Pembroke girls\u2019 basketball more disappointment than Bow. Each of the Spartans\u2019 last two years ended with a loss to the Falcons in the playoffs. But Saturday was different.Pembroke was the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188,"featured_media":11659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_newspack_byline_active":true,"_newspack_byline":"by [Author id=188]Eric Rynston-Lobel[\/Author] Monitor staff","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,508],"tags":[24,505,274],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[533],"class_list":["post-11658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-youth","category-top-headlines-cm","tag-facebook","tag-paywall","tag-pembroke-academy","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/43068124-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/188"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11660,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11658\/revisions\/11660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11658"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=11658"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=11658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}