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Titans ride second half wave to top BG, 55-46

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Jan 26, 2019

Telegraph photo by TOM KING Nashua North's Brenden Choate goes up for two against Bishtop Guertin's Austin Hiscoe (24) and Kyle Baker during Friday night's game at BG.

NASHUA – Usually, Hawaii is a pretty nice place to visit.

But the way the crowd at the Bishop Guertin High School Colligadome made the atmosphere on Hawaiian Night Friday for the Nashua High School boys basketball team, it was anything but paradise. Loud, raucous.

Perhaps that made it all the sweeter for the Titans, though, when they ralled from a 34-22 early third quarter deficit to pull out a 55-46 win. It’s North’s sixth straight win as they moved to 7-1.

“That was a great basketball atmosphere,” North coach Steve Lane said. “And it’s a good test for us to rise to the challenge in a real hostile place to play. I’m proud of the kids tonight.”

“We came out in the second half working hard, and once we hit our shot got on a roll,” Titans sophomore guard Curtis Harris said after a 17 point effort. “We just had to get stop after stop and get a rebound.”

It worked. The Cards went into an offensive funk, going well over eight minutes without a field goal. They clung to a 35-34 lead going into the fourth quarter but the Titans went on a 12-0 run to take control at 46-35, the dagger being a Harris 3-pointer with 3:54 left.

Guertin couldn’t buy a field goal until Sam Mullet’s drive to the hoop ended the drought with 3:23 to go. It helped, as BG’s Max Matarazzo nailed a trey with 1:09 left to get the Cards within 50-46. But while North went seven of eight from the line down the stretch (19 for 25 overall), the Cards couldn’t hit one, going 14 for 24.

“That’s been a problem for us all year,” Cards coach Matt Regan said. “I don’t have an answer for (the scoring drought)”We practice layups every day, we practice post moves and layups and they’re just not going in.”

Andrew Arika had 11 points and Matarrazo 10 for BG, while Brenden Choate (16 points) was also big for North.

Regan was lamenting the Cards making a mental error late in the second half that allowed North to get within eight, 30-22, at intermission. “It kind of started there,” he said. “We were expecting to go into the half no worse than 11, they cut it to eight, and I think that kind of game them a jump on momentum.

“Then in the second half they turned up the defensive pressure. We kind of disappeared. Too many turnovers, too many missed layups.”

Lane said a couple of adjustments helped.

“We talked about it, make the adjustment of not giving up so much dribble penetration,” Lane said. “(Arika) was killing us. Number five (Joe DaSilva) was killing us, (Austin) Hiscoe was killing us. Kids like Brenden Choate, kids like Curtis, like Nate Kane, they adhered to the discipline of what we taught them the last couple of days, didn’t give up dribble penetration and made them take tougher shots. You give up 16 points in the second half, that’s pretty good.”

And this was after the Cards had jumped out to a 17-5 lead after one period.

“In the first half, it was really tough,” Lane said. “Credit to them (the Cards).”

If they think it was loud and intense Friday, it may be turned up even more next week when the Titans are at Nashua South. But for now, they’re cruising.

“Don’t feel comfortable yet,” Lane said. “We’re just about at the halfway point, and you’ve got to keep after the grind.”

But for now? Aloha.

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