Telegraph photo by TOM KING Nashua South's Cody Rocheleau (11) can't maneuver against Merrimack's Pat Yudkin, left, and Michael Johnson as the Panthers' Stav Alkalay shares his frustration during Tuesday night's 57-42 Tomahawks win at the Belanger Gym.

NASHUA – Who says you have to have hard-core basketball players to be good at the sport?

The Merrimack High School boys basketball team has more often than not scoffed at that rule. Yes, the Tomahawks seem to be doing it again this year as their 5-2 start, capped by Tuesday night’s 57-42 win over Nashua South at the Belanger Gym would seem to prove.

“Definitely,” Merrimack coach Tim Goodridge said with a chuckle. “These kids don’t play basketball in the summer, they’re all like football players, soccer players.

“The start of the year we’re pretty ugly. Our goal is to get better every day, and hopefully in March we can surprise somebody. That’s what we’re working on.”

They really didn’t surprise Nashua South coach Nate Mazzerole, who expected a tough, grinding type game. He got more of it than he likely wanted, though, as the Panthers (3-4) led 16-13 after the first quarter only to go without a field goal the entire second period, trailing 31-18 at the half and 40-20 early in the third.

“Our defense broke down, obviously, and their defense is always very good,” Mazerolle said. “We talked about what we wanted to do against it, we also talked about how they’re the type of team that tries to take you out of what you’re trying to do. We got frustrated, reverted back to bad habits. … They executed better than we did.”

Merrimack got 15 each from senior Pat Yudkin and sophomore Jack Tarleton, and looked as fluid offensively during an 18-0 second period run as it has in a while.

“We really played well,” Goodridge said. “We handled their pressure well, the high-low was working.”

So was the Merrimack defense, which kept South from having any scorers in double figures. Alex Hulfachor had nine while Cody Rocheleau added eight, and Merrimack’s Adam Ellis clamped down on explosive South guard Ivan Nyantenji, holding him to seven points.

“I still think the strongpoint of this basketball team is its defense,” Goodridge said. “Adam played tremendous. I think he’s one of the best defensive players in the state. … He’s worked hard, he’s a three year player, a tough little kid, and he played great out there tonight.”

“I just tried to put as much pressure on them and I had great help defense from my teammates,” Ellis said. “Every time we get in the gym we’re getting better, better chemistry. We get a defensive rebound and a stop and it turns right into offense.”

Thing got interesting later in the third period, however, as the Tomahawks’ had trouble handling the South full court pressure, and the Panthers cut things to 44-32 by period’s end. However, in the fourth, Tarleton hit two jumpers, one a trey, and the lead was back to 53-35 with just under four minutes to play. South didn’t help itself during its comeback attempt by clanking free throws, going 9 of 17 overall.

And the Tomahawks did more than survive, thanks to some pretty good basketball acumen.

“It’s a lot better than it’s been in years past, and we’ll just take it,” Goodridge said. “Playing South down here and getting a road win in (Division I) is nice to see.”

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