By DAN BARILE
Eagle Times Correspondent
It’s not often that the lowest seed advances to the semifinals in the state tournament, but the Stevens girl’s basketball team achieved the unlikely feat after back-to-back upsets to open the postseason.
The 14th-seeded Cardinals opened the playoffs by defeating third-seeded Newport on Wednesday at Wheeler Gymnasium. Newport topped Stevens in both regular season matchups, but the Tigers struggled to generate enough offense without top scorer Taylor Fellows. Led by 11 points from Bailey Morin, Stevens claimed a 36-27 victory to advance to the quarterfinals.
Stevens hopped on the bus again on Saturday for a game against sixth-seeded Prospect Mountain. While the majority of prognosticators likely had Prospect Mountain prevailing, Stevens put forth another impressive performance on the defensive end to come away with a 26-20 win. Bella Bovell paced Stevens with 10 points and Lili Eagan added six.
Following a 15-1 regular season that earned them the second seed and a bye to the quarterfinals, Fall Mountain experienced an easier path to the semifinals. The Wildcats cruised to a 59-35 victory on their home floor against the seventh-seeded White Mountains. Jenna Fillion (15), Abby Jarvis (13), Riley Beckwith (10) and Clara Stewart each scored in double figures for the Wildcats.
Fall Mountain won both contests against Stevens during the regular season, but the Cardinals gave them a scare during the rematch in Claremont on Jan. 28. After dropping a 41-24 decision in Langdon, Stevens took the Wildcats down to the wire before falling 46-38.
Fall Mountain (16-1) and Stevens (8-10) will face-off at Sanborn Regional High School on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. The other semifinal matchup featuring top-seeded St. Thomas Aquinas (17-0) and fifth-seeded Monadnock (15-4) will follow at 7:30 p.m. The winners of each game will advance to the championship game on Saturday at Keene State College.
Semifinals Predictions
No. 1 St. Thomas Aquinas 62, No. 5 Monadnock 45
No. 2 Fall Mountain 41, No. 14 Stevens 34
