Chick-fil-A Holiday Tournament: Nashua North boys basketball tops Nashua South to finish third

NASHUA – It may have been a holiday tournament game, but the Nashua High School North boys basketball really needed a win.

After coming up short in its comeback the day before, on Friday, Titans coach Steve Lane wanted to see his players deal with a pressure situation and come out on top.

North got what it wanted, as the Titans were able to hold off a late charge by Nashua South and pick up a 62-57 win in the third-place game of the Chick-fil-A Holiday Tournament at Nashua High School South.

The Titans went on a 19-3 run in the second quarter to turn a tie game into a a double-digit lead, and North led 36-25 at halftime. But South chipped away throughout the second half, getting within five points late in the game before North hit a few free throws down the stretch.

“This is a good win,” Lane said. “It’s another confidence builder for us. We needed a win. And the kids held on after a good little charge by South at the end.”

Alonzo Linton led the Titans with 16 points while CJ Barrett had 12 points, all on 3-pointers, including one on North’s first possession that seemed to get the team going. Sclyler Boykin was also in double figures with 11 points and Levi Gosselin had eight.

“It’s always good to find a kid who isn’t afraid to step up and take some shots,” Lane said. “CJ Barrett was impressive with four 3s. He picked us up real early and our energy was very good (Friday).”

Kevin Genao led all scorers with 23 points, including five 3-pointers, for South, while Max Osgood added 12 points and Jacob Wilcox had seven.

But for the second game in a row, South went through a prolonged drought in the second and third quarter, scoring just 21 points in the two frames.

“We still don’t know how to play together,” South coach Nate Mazerolle said. “That’s not a knock, that there’s any divide. It’s just that we have so little on-court chemistry because they haven’t had enough reps yet. I have a bunch of guys who don’t know the system. They know how to play, but they don’t know what we’re trying to do yet.”

That showed early on, as the Panthers tried to match the Titans basket for basket. It worked at first, as South held a slim late in the quarter and went up 17-14 on a basket by Tyler Bernard, but North’s Sean Dezurick hit a buzzer-beating 3 to tie the game going into the second.

North opened the quarter with six straight points and led by as many as 16 points in the quarter. South cut into the lead a couple of times in the third, pulling within eight points with 3:02 to play in the frame, but the Titans got the lead back up to 13 going into the fourth.

A basket by Linton gave North a 55-40 lead with in the opening minute of the fourth quarter, but South went on a 14-4 run to cut the lead down to four points.

“With about four minutes left, we had Sky go to the rim and get a charge,” Lane said. “We had Alonzo going to the rim off-balance and out of control. We’ve got jump shots from our senior captain, which are unnecessary. We’re up seven or eight, we’re in control, and we’re having empty possessions.”

And those possessions allowed the Panthers to get close, but Boykin went 3 of 4 at the line in the final 35 seconds to give North some breathing room. Genao hit a 3 at the buzzer to make the final score closer.

Girls Third-Place Game

GOFFSTOWN 48, NASHUA SOUTH 40

The Grizzlies got another big game from freshman Kelly Walsh, as she had 14 points, going 5 of 6 from the free throw line, as Goffstown held off the Panthers to finish third.

Sofia Piriz hit three 3-pointers to finish with nine points and Kasey Britton-Doucette and Ali Larochelle each had six points.

Kirsten McIntire led South with 12 points while Jasmine Sylvester added nine points and Shardeia Spearman chipped in with seven.

Boys Fifth-Place Game

MILFORD 63, ALVIRNE 55

The Spartans outscored the Broncos 49-26 in the second half on their way to a fifth-place finish in the tournament.

Nick Gutterson scored all of his 13 points in the second half and Ryan Banuskevich added 12 points for Milford. Jamie Pare (nine points) and Evan Ryan (eight) also scored all of their points in the second half.

Max Bonney-Liles led all scorers with 30 points, including six 3-pointers, for Alvirne. Jack Brown added nine points, but no one else had more than five for the Broncos.

Boys Seventh-Place Game

SOUHEGAN 50, GOFFSTOWN 43

Ryan Hickey scored 14 points and Davis Biddle added 11 points to help lead the Sabers to a win on the final day of the tournament.

Andersen Geffrard was also in double figures for Souhegan, scoring 10 points, while George Carlson also had eight.

Goffstown got 16 points from Ryan Hall and Taylor French had nine for the Grizzlies.