The Pembroke Academy girls’ basketball team’s offense fired on all cylinders to stay ahead of Merrimack Valley on Tuesday night. The Spartans’ eventual 59-36 win secured a top-five seed for the upcoming Division II state tournament in their penultimate regular-season game, with a chance to finish even higher depending on results.

With only two games left in the D-II regular season, the Pride and Spartans entered this game in hot form, with six- and seven-game win streaks, respectively. Pembroke was tied with Oyster River and Milford for third place in the D-II standings with a 13-3 record, while MV followed closely behind at 12-4, tied with Bow.

MV was vying for revenge after falling at home to the Spartans earlier in the season, 44-37. Still, more importantly, the value of earning a higher seed over a rival could be a huge boost to carry into the postseason. The playoff implications of a win in this year’s tightly contested seeding battle for both teams were huge, and the rivalry brought out the best in both.

The Pride kept up in the first half and went ahead in the first quarter thanks to a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by junior forward Isabelle Navoy. Pembroke bounced back with force to outscore the Pride 16-3 in the second quarter and go ahead by 12 points at the half, thanks to a buzzer-beater of its own by junior guard Ava Strazzeri.

At the half, MV was outrebounding the Spartans but could not quite get its offense to click at the same high rate. Pembroke coach Steve Langevin credited his team’s defense for the cushion as it stood strong in the paint and it generated many turnovers and errors on the perimeter to get points on the fast break.

“First quarter we were rushing things, trying to do things individually and we scored, but it wasn’t like we fly,” he said. “After that, we started playing much better, getting more movement and everybody attacking when they could.

“We got great off the bench Ava Strazzeri came in and had a great game for us, and Tessa (Love) came in and really helped us at first half to give us that cushion. Then the defense just played really, really well the whole game.”

Pembroke used its dominant defense and high-flying offense to win the game. However, the Pride lived up to their name and played tough until the end.

Junior forward Jada Lucas scored 11 points and notched four assists and steals to keep MV rolling, but she also committed four fouls which limited her playing time down the stretch.

“We’re going to possibly, hopefully, see them in the playoffs, so we got to get tougher, we got to do better things,” MV coach Bob McNutt said. “It’s hard for me to sit there and say that we haven’t been playing good basketball, because we have. Unfortunately, this was just one of those nights where we got smacked. We didn’t do a lot of good things, and they just did.”

He added that Pembroke’s unique ability to score through all five players on the court is something few teams have and that, in the playoffs, they’ll approach each team differently and not get distracted by the possibility of facing the Spartans again. He’ll continue to work on communication and rebounding to ensure his team can bounce back.

Pembroke’s defense elsewhere helped keep senior center Kayla Smith in check in the paint and limited their rhythm. Senior forward Kaitlin Arenella was key defensively for the Spartans as she led her team in rebounds and assists while scoring eight points to secure the higher seed.

“I just saw Kayla and she was definitely like a big threat on MV, and that was like our main goal to definitely stop her in the middle because with the ball in the middle, they could do so many different things,” she said.

She added that the team is feeling ready for the playoffs. The Pride feel like the chemistry is as high as it can get and that they have faced many tough opponents throughout the season that they can keep up with come postseason.

Alexander Rapp can be reached at arapp@cmonitor.com.