CLAREMONT — With the 2020-21 basketball season being an uncertain venture, the Stevens High girls team decided to entrust its offense to a freshman.
It worked — and one year later, Kiley Bundy is leading the Cardinals to territory they haven’t reached in quite a while.
Bundy went straight from middle school to the starting point guard spot on the Stevens varsity team, and she made a difficult transition look easy last year, scoring 19 points in her first high school game against Mascoma. She went onto lead the Cardinals in scoring with 11.1 points per game, propelling Stevens to a playoff win over those same Royals before her team was eliminated in the NHIAA Division III quarterfinals by Fall Mountain.
“Going from eighth grade to varsity is a big jump,” Cardinals coach Steve Condon said. “We got her feet wet a little bit last year with the games we had. To get her legs underneath her, we’re happy with the progress we’re seeing from her.”
After Stevens played just eight regular-season games in Bundy’s pandemic-shortened freshman year, the Cardinals have a chance to earn a top-four seed in this year’s D-III playoffs, which start next week. Stevens is currently 12-3, with the only losses coming to Conant, Fall Mountain and Newfound — three of the current top four. The Cards close the regular season with a crucial game at Monadnock on Friday evening.
They’re in that position in large part thanks to Bundy, who — despite some recent shooting struggles — is averaging upwards of 15 points per game. She’s led Stevens to a pair of critical wins over Kearsarge and two victories against rival Newport, among other highlights.
“My communication skills have bumped up,” Bundy said. “My confidence has boosted. If someone makes a mistake, we do better the next time. We try and make each other better.”
When Bundy isn’t scoring herself, she’s orchestrating the offense and finding her teammates. Junior Alyssa Paquette helps control the post, and she is the Cardinals’ second-leading scorer at just north of 11 points per game. Junior Tara Sullivan, another post player, keyed Stevens’ second win against Kearsarge on Feb. 5 with a team-high 16.
Paquette and Sullivan have often been the beneficiaries when Bundy has drawn help defense. Seniors Zahna Rice and Molly Derosier and junior Stella Lavertue have also filled in admirably at times, and those upperclassmen have quickly helped Bundy become comfortable with her role.
“We’re very fortunate. They all bought into the same philosophy,” Condon said. “The younger you are, the easier it is to get down on yourself sometimes, (so) Kiley’s super appreciative of getting to play with some amazing teammates.”
Stevens has transitioned between D-II and D-III a couple of times over the past decade, so the Cardinals were sometimes playing completely different teams from one year to the next. But now that they are where they belong, at the larger end of Division III, they’ve developed a strong core that will be mostly back next season, setting Stevens up for multiple cracks at an elusive trip to a final four.
“A lot of the success (Bundy) has had this year is because of the group we have,” Condon said. “She’s happened to get into a lot of spots where she’s had open shots. She’s got a lot of room to grow, but she’s continuing to make better decisions as the season goes along.”
Benjamin Rosenberg can be reached at brosenberg@vnews.com or 603-727-3302.