Staff photo by TOM KING Bishop Guertin's Caroline Hoffer loses the handle on the ball while double teamed by Nashua North's Jaden Smith, left, and Bianca Gershgorin druing Tuesday night's game at BG.

NASHUA – Call it the warm up act.

Just like most of us with the weather, what the Bishop Guertin High School girls basketball team experienced on Tuesday night likely won’t be as easy-breezy come Friday.

The Cardinals breezed by Nashua High School North, 62-36, at the Coligadome and Guertin coach Brad Krieck hopes the defensive tone they set carries over into Friday night’s regular season finale at home against fellow contender Pinkerton Academy.

“That’s exactly the defensive intensity we’ve been looking for all year long,” Krieck said. “It’s nice to see it a week away from the playoffs and before a big game on Friday night.”

The Cards are 12-5, and were so hoping to establish an intense tone to carry over the rest of the week they honored their lone senior, Caroline Hoffer, prior to Tuesday’s game rather than Friday’s home finale.

“That’s exactly right,” Krieck said, his team now 12-5 and basically locked into the fifth seed in Division I. “It was a great night for her, and good to get it out of the way and prepare exclusively for Pinkerton on Friday night.”

Hoffer and Erin Carney led the way with 12 points each for the Cards, while Liza Field and Ava Owens each had nine. For the Titans, Jaden Smith had 12 points while freshman Kaitlyn Laurendi had five. Titans, head coach Christina Bean hopes things improve as they also get ready for next week’s Division I tourney. A week or so ago it looked like they may be on the bubble, but they should be in now despite Tuesday’s defeat, thanks to a great second half of the season recovery.

“It was a slow start to the year, but they buckled down,” Bean said. “Between injury and sickness, this was the first time we had our starting five on the court together. That in itself was a good sign.”

What wasn’t was the 18 first-half turnovers that basically helped end the game early. The Cards, thanks to their full court pressure, turned a 6-4 game into a 24-6 lead by the end of the first quarter. There simply was no escape for the Titans (7-10), and it didn’t help that they were cold from the outside through much of the first half.

“It’s different (than in practice),” Bean said. “And you know, when they play on their home court, that smaller gym. We have that big court, we spread out. … It’s frustrating. You make one mistake, one mistake will lead to two, and two to three. The first five minutes, that’s what happened. They got down on themselves.

“Sometimes your hesitant. … You take that second and it’s gone; it’s not there anymore.”

But next week, both teams will still be playing. Bean just hopes it’s someone else who has to face Guertin in the first round.

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