Nashua North boys basketball pulls away from Milford in fourth quarter

NASHUA – The Nashua High School North boys basketball team had good reason to believe coach Steve Lane when he told the Titans they’d be squaring off against a good team in Milford.

That didn’t prevent North from starting slow Monday, but once the Titans turned it on, there was no stopping them.

North came back from a nine-point deficit in the first quarter and ran away from Milford in the fourth for a 72-58 win in the Chick-Fil-A Holiday Tournament at Nashua South.

“We’re fortunate that we came out on the good end of it,” Lane said of winning despite starting slow. “I think it had a lot to do with the way we started. No intensity, I don’t think we were ready to play.

“I don’t think the kids took my words to heart to how good Milford was. They beat us by 30 in the summer league and it wasn’t even close. We weren’t ready to play and I told them so.”

Nathan Hale led the way with 26 points, including four 3-pointers, while Alonzo Linton added 19 points and Ronnie Silva was also in double figures with 13.

Ryan Banuskevich led Milford with 15 points, while Jack Briggs added 11 points and Daniel Murray chipped in with nine. But at the game wore on, the Spartans started taking shots that coach Dan Murray wasn’t happy with and North was able to take advantage.

“At times we were in sync and at times we were out of sync,” Dan Murray said. “We took a lot of shots that weren’t good shots. They were just too rushed. We want to take quick shots, but they’ve got to be good shots.”

Milford went up 15-6 midway through the first quarter, but North closed the quarter on a 10-3 run to make it a two-point game. The Spartans pushed it back to four to open the second, but the Titans responded by outscoring Milford 18-8 the rest of the half.

A 3-pointer by Hale gave North a nine-point lead of its own, 34-25, with 1:13 left until halftime, but Daniel Murray hit a 3 at the other end to cut the Titans’ lead to six at the break.

In the third, every time North appeared to start to pull away, going up by seven or eight points, Milford would make a couple of baskets to get the lead down to one possession. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Shane Winnett and Banuskevich made it a 40-38 lead for North with 5:01 remaining in the third.

The Titans pushed the lead back to nine with an 11-4 run, capped off by a three-point play by Hale and a 3-pointer for Linton. But Milford answered again, and a 3 at the buzzer by Kirk Palladino made it 53-47 North going into the fourth.

But the Titans opened the final quarter with a 7-2 spurt and Milford couldn’t get closer than eight points the rest of the way.

“They made shots and they made it difficult for us to guard them at some points,” Lane said. “We made a few shots and got a few offensive rebounds.

“Our pressure on the ball helps over the course of a game. We might have wore them down, I don’t know, but they were making shot after shot. It wasn’t like we weren’t guarding people.”

North moves on in the winner’s bracket to take on Alvirne at 6 p.m. Tuesday, while Milford will open the day at 3 p.m. against Goffstown.