NASHUA – As if the holiday season isn’t stressful enough, the Nashua High School South boys basketball team faced a pre-Christmas test Tuesday night. The Panthers passed.

Going against a Winnacunnet team that was generating a lot of preseason talk, South took control early, withstood a second quarter Warriors rally and dominated the second half for a 80-55 victory.

The Panthers got a huge night from their big men, with Dave Dunham scoring 24 points by the end of the third quarter. Jack Preston’s 22 points included a couple of slam dunks, including a reverse slam with the game firmly in South’s grasp early in the fourth quarter.

“I was a little nervous with the pace, knowing what they did to Pinkerton the other night,” South coach Nate Mazerolle said. “They scored 30 points in the fourth quarter.

“I’ll tell you what I was most impressed with tonight. I’ve been saying all along we’re not a deep team right now, because we have so many new guys, but we got some big contribution from the bench.”

With both Nashua point guards in foul trouble in the third quarter, Cam Joyal played some valuable minutes off the bench in the second half. South got 11 points and six rebounds off the bench from Nick Penkla and a solid bench effort from Vinnie Ortolano.

Both teams had their moments in a
first-half in which 23 fouls were whistled and 33 free throws were attempted.

Dunham scored 10 first-quarter points as the Panthers went up by 11 early, but Winnaunnet, subbing five at a time on some occasions, rallied to tie it at 29-29 midway through the second quarter.

But South rallied late in the half, with Trevor Knight playing a leading role, to give the Panthers a 42-35 halftime edge. Knight had 11 first-half points, just one fewer than Dunham.

The third quarter was all South, as the Panthers outscored the Warriors 26-7 to go up 68-42 after three. The lead peaked at 31 points in the fourth quarter.

“All week our coaches were telling us we needed to make a statement,” Dunham said. “And I think that’s pretty much what we did.”

Among those who were impressed, was Winnacunnet coach Jay McKenna.

“With our style, you have to play with more energy and you have to make shots,” McKenna said. “They played with more energy than we did. Hopefully we learned our lesson and we won’t play like that again.

“You looked at our roster and we don’t have size. They do and both of their big kids hurt us tonight.”

At Nashua

WINNACUNNET (55)

Sam Knollmeyer 2-5-10, Ben Gareau 2-3-8, Rich Ruffin 2-1-7, Ryan Gigliotti 2-1-6, Patrick Lamprey 2-0-4, Sam Siegart2-0-4, Jonathan Flagg 1-0-3, Jack Knollmeyer 1-0-3, Alec Boucher 1-0-2, Dave MacLaughlin 1-0-2, George Soderberg 1-0-2, Matthew Guerin 1-0-2, Jordan Cutting 0-1-1, Spencer Kennedy 0-1-1. Totals: 18-12-55)

NASHUA SOUTH (80)

David Dunham 10-0-24, Jack Preston 7-8-22, Nick Penkala 4-3-11, Trevor Knight 4-3-11, Tim Preston 3-0-6, James Taylor 1-0-2, Ralph Garcia 1-0-2, Robert Smyth 0-2-2. Totals 30-16-80

Winnacunnet (1-1) 13 22 7 13 – 55

Nashua South (2-0) 19 23 26 12 – 80

3-pointers: W – Ruffin 2, S. Knollmeyer, J. Knollmeyer, Gareau, Flagg, Gigliotti. Officials: Dichard, Bishop. Prelim: Winnacunnet JVs won. Next Game: South at Concord on Thursday.