Telegraph photo by TOM KING Nashua South's Bailey Morin tries to put a shot up against the Goffstown double team of Emily Doherty, left, and Kendra Cooley during the Grizzlies' 44-35 win Friday night at the Belanger Gym.

NASHUA – One bad quarter and one very good player did in the Nashua High School South girls basketball team on Friday night.

The Panthers allowed Goffstown’s Kelly Walsh to hit for 28 points, and were outscored 16-7 in the second period en route to a tough 44-35 loss at the hands of the Grizzlies at the Belanger Gym, South’s third straight defeat.

“I’m going to sound like a broken record, but the biggest thing we have to do is be consistent for all four quarters,” Panthers coach John Bourgeois said, his team falling to 4-4 in Division I. “We had an issue with their offensive rebounds in the first half, we came back a little bit in the third, but we have to be able to start the game a lot better.”

Goffstown turned a slim 10-6 lead after one into a 26-13 advantage, capitalizing on eight Panther turnovers in the second quarter and Walsh’s scoring acumen, as she had 15 by the half.

“Some games a player kind of puts a team on her back,” Goffstown coach Steve Largy said. “Tonight was that kind of night.”

The Panthers, who did not have a player in double figures, were led by Bailey Morin’s seven points and six from Juliana Martin. But they did show signs of life in the second half thanks to their outside shooting. South got to within 32-27 after three, and 37-32 with 4:44 left on a big Bailey Morin shot.

But there was Walsh 20 seconds later, zipping down the lane for a layup to extend the visitors’ lead to seven. She then hit a big 3-pointer a minue later to make it a 44-32 game, capping the deciding 7-0 run. The Grizzlies are now 7-2, looking like a team to mention in that mix in the tier below Bishop Guertin in Division I.

“Kelly’s an excellent player, and she’s even a better kid,” Bourgeois said. “I credit her, her teammates and the coaching staff. But we have to be able to fight through adversity better and we’re just not there yet as a team.”

The Panthers couldn’t even take full advantage of their edge in height, as top frontcourt player Kirsten McIntire was battling a bad cold and managed just four points. Plus the Grizzlies did a good job to take the South inside game away.

“We knew this was going to be a war, we knew South was going to give us a fight,” Largy said. “We know Kirsten, we know Iruka (South’s Obinelo), we know how good they are inside and try to take that away as much as possible.”

“We just have to do better as a coaching staff,” Bougeois said, “and better as players to execute.”

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