South bounces back in second half to beat Bedford

NASHUA – The boys basketball teams from Nashua High School South and Bedford High School collectively played two good halves of basketball Thursday.

For the Bulldogs, it was a good first half, as Bedford stifled South with its zone defense and led by four at halftime.

But the second half belong to the Panthers, as South applied full-court pressure on defense to limit Bedford to 11 second-half points and pull out a 45-33 win in the third-place game at the Chick-fil-A Holiday Basketball Tournament at Nashua North.

Anthony Muccioli led all scorers with 11 points for South while Michael Dunham added nine markers and David Dunham and Jack Preston had six apiece. Bedford got six points from Collin McManus and five from Cameron Maservey, as the Bulldogs scored under 40 points for the second time in the tournament.

Bedford was locked in on offense in the first quarter, scoring 16 points and leading by as many as seven early. Meanwhile, South struggled to get anything going in the first half and trailed 22-18 at the break.

“We were lackadaisical,” South coach Nate Mazerrole said. “We looked like a team playing in the third-place game. We weren’t ready.”

In need of a spark, Mazerrole switched the Panthers to a full-court defense and the change was immediate.

“We have been playing mostly half-court, man-to-man over the first four games out of what I thought would be necessity,” Mazerrole said. “Second half, we came out in a full-court, man-to-man defense and were full of energy. We forced indirect errors and I think that changed the tenor of the games.”

On the other end, Bedford switched from the zone defense that had been successful to that point throughout the tournament, to a man-to-man defense.

“This tournament is about trying to get better and we need to be able to do both zone and man (defense),” Bedford coach John Langlois said. “If this was about winning the game, we would have stayed in the zone and see what took place. But it’s about getting better.”

The Bulldogs were once again without four starters – Jared and Trevor Fahmy, Joseph Maher and Matt Beaulieu – due to illness and injury. Forced to go with younger players, Bedford tired a little at the end of the game.

“I thought we got a little tired, too, which was a little disappointing,” Langlois said. “We had a good first half and then in the third, all the engines stopped and we fell behind.”

Both teams resume their regular-season schedules next week, with Bedford traveling to Hollis/Brookline on Tuesday and South hosting Bishop Guertin on Wednesday.

Fifth-place game: Alvirne 51, Hollis/Brookline 37

Sean Dunn scored 15 points and Tony Beaulieu added 14 to lead the Broncos past the Cavaliers. Miles Tobin led H/B with 14 points and Brian Liamos chipped in with 13, as the pair combined to average over 29 points a game in the tournament.

Alvirne jumped to a 10-point lead after one quarter and then limited H/B to just 12 points in the second half. Pat Nager also had 12 points for the Broncos.

Seventh-place game: Nashua North 63, Campbell 48

Javon Williams went 9-for-10 from the free throw line and scored 15 points to lead the Titans to the win. North also got 11 points each from Adam Fay, Mike O’Connor and Anthony Farmer.

Tyler Syphers led Campbell with 11 points while Josh Morgan scored all 10 of his points in the second half.