Tiffany Ruffin is the #1 ranked girl in New Hampshire The MA & NH High School Basketball Report was at Pinkerton High School (ranked #4) tonight to watch Winnacunnet High School (ranked #1) and Boston College bound Tiffany Ruffin. In this one, Winnacunnet held off a second half run by Pinkerton and came away with a 53 -4 7 . The game also featured #4 rated A.J. Guidi and #7 rated Laura Pierce from Pinkerton as well as #5 ranked Emily Siegart and #10 ranked Lindsey Mahoney from Winnacunnet. Not bad as 5 of the top 10 senior players were featured in this show down tonight.
This was a match up that everyone was talking about, Pinkerton and Winnacunnet, a battle of two of the top teams in New Hamphire's Class L. This night was sure to be a great display of girls basketball. After two quarters of play, any fan in Hackler Gymnasium would beg to differ. Pinkerton couldn't buy a basket, and Winnacunnet seemed to be just playing on cruise control. From the start, it had the makings of blowout.
Coming out of halftime down 19, the Astros could have thrown in the towel. However, senior point guard Laura Pierce had a different idea. Behind her smart play, and one gutsy move after another, she rallied her troops and almost pulled off a stellar comeback. Winnacunnet, led by the efforts of guard Lindsey Mahoney, who had a sixteen first half points, proved to be too much for Pinkerton...on this particular night at least. Pinkerton, led by a core group of upperclassmen is a team you have to like. They play every possession, never taking a play off. AJ Guidi, along with Pierce are workhorses, doing the little things-setting screens for teammates, penetrating and kicking, getting the big rebounds. There is a reason they are one of the top teams in Class L.
Winnacunnet, has all the talent, and is led by the top player in the state, BC bound Tiffany Ruffin. To her credit, Ruffin was out there playing tonight with a broken thumb on her shooting hand. Having watched Ruffin time and time again, she has the ability to dominate and take over the game single handedly. She also makes everybody on her team better. As a result, player for player, I don't think anyone has a more talented team. Having said that, tonight wasn't Winnacunnet's best performance as they seemed to become complacent in the second half as they played a lazy zone for the entire evening.
Fortunately for Winnacunnet they squeaked by with the six point victory. Mahoney led all scorers with 19 and Pierce was close behind with 17. Guidi and Ruffin had 14 and 12 points respectively.
