Nashua South comes back twice to beat Nashua North in Holiday Basketball Tournament finale (video)

NASHUA – There were moments during Thursday night’s Nashua Holiday Basketball Tournament boys final where it looked like Nashua High School South was in trouble.

The Panthers fell behind early against Nashua North, but fought back to take the lead at halftime and go up 13 points in the third quarter.

The Titans went on a run of their own to retake the lead early in the fourth, but South hung in there, counterpunched and came away with a 64-58 win over North to win the tournament championship.

Josh Caruso led all scorers with 23 points, including three 3-pointers and 6 of 6 shooting at the free throw line, and Zach Castonguay added 17 points, as the pair hit several big shots for South throughout the night.

After North took the lead, Castonguay hit a jumper with 3:20 remaining to tie the game, and moments later, Caruso hit a 3 that gave South the lead for good.

“They weren’t rattled,” South coach Nate Mazerolle said. “We got frustrated with some calls, which we need to get a little better at. That didn’t help our cause but we got through that. They listened in timeouts and found a way to make enough plays to win.

“We still need to run our offense better. We find a way to fight back.”

Samson Akotey added 10 points for the Panthers and Josh Tripp finished with eight.

North got 20 points from Jaden Pena, including two 3s, and Parth Miglani had four 3s and 13 points while Adrian Lazo was also in double figures with 12.

The Titans hit five 3-pointers in the first half to help build a lead that grew to as many as eight points early in the second quarter. But the Panthers ended the half on a 20-8 run to lead 34-30 at the break.

South opened the third with a 10-1 run to go up 44-31 when North took a timeout with 5:31 remaining in the quarter.

“I challenged them in the huddle,” North coach Steve Lane said. “I said you’ve got to find out what you’re made of, what kind of character you have. Just don’t quit and they chipped away and kept at it, which is what I was proud of. Winning and losing at this point is kind of irrelevant, but we found out about ourselves.”

The Titans responded, holding the Panthers scoreless for 4:30 after the timeout to cut the lead to two points. South led 48-46 going into the fourth, but a 3 by Pena and a transition basket by Lazo put North ahead 51-50 with 7:06 to play and led to a timeout by the Panthers.

“They’re a great team, we knew they were going to come out and punch us,” Caruso said. “It was all about how we were going to respond. We faced adversity and we came back and won the game.”

But not before North went up by four on a three-point play by Lazo, making it 56-52 with 4:55 remaining. A pair of free throws by Tripp got South within two before Castonguay’s tying basket.

Caruso put the Panthers back in front, pulling up a for a 3 in transition to make it 59-56.

“I’m going to give South all the credit because they played super,” Lane said. “Zach and Josh are really good players. They’re tough to guard, but that doesn’t give us the excuse to leave our feet and get beat off the strong hand, the things that we preach on our defensive end.

“But give those guys credit, they had 40 of their 64. Akotey had a nice little game for them. They had a nice overall game.”