Bishop Guertin's Liv Murray looks to put up a shot against the double team of Keira Bike (12) and Gillian Waller during the Cards' 56-40 win at the Colligadome on Friday night. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – There’s something about the Bishop Guertin High School girls basketball team that bring out at times the best in the Merrimack Tomahawks.

The key phrase is “at times”. After losing to Guertin despite a nice second half by 13 earlier this week, the ‘Hawks played a good second and fourth quarter in the rematch Friday night, but the Cards dominated the other two periods to earn a 56-40 win at the Colligadome.

“It’s tough, you’ve got to play 32 minutes against them,” Tomahawks coach Bryan Duggan said. “And we’re not quite there yet. But we did some really nice things, similar to the other night.

“We put together some good quarters against them. But mentally we’re not super deep, we get a little tired and they can wear you down.”

Actually the Tomahawks (5-5) played their worst at the start of both halves. They were down 8-6 and saw Guertin go on a 14-0 run that stretched into the second period. But they climbed back to cut the margin to 28-20 by halftime.

However, 13-0 Guertin, keyed by quick layups by Kaillee McDonald and Brooke Paquette to start the second half, went on a 10-2 run to lead 38-22 and that put the Cards in the driver’s seat.

“They just don’t go away,” Guertin coach Brad Kreick said of the Tomahawks. “They just keep coming. I really, really like that team. I love the way they play, love their toughness, they play together. The coach is doing a great job, his first year there, lot of respect. They’re just tough and they compete.”

What changed after the halftime break?

“We just buckled down defensively,” Kreick said. “We got a little lax defensively in the second quarter, let them get some stuff a little easier than we usually get stuff.

“So we told the kids, ‘Look, don’t worry about the offensive stuff; just buckle down defensively, get stops, rebound the ball and get out in transition.”

And it worked, as the Cards took a 48-30 lead into the final quarter. But to their credit, the ‘Hawks kept fighting and didn’t let things get out of hand.

Gillian Waller led Merrimack with 15 points, while Kaylee Bormuth added seven and Emma Valluzi six.

The Cards got another good game from Meghan Stack, who had a game-high 16 points. Liv Murray added 12 and Kaillee McDonald 10.

What Guertin takes away from this is the success against the wear and tear of back-to-back games, grinders from one degree to the other.

“That was a tough game (Thursday at Pinkerton), a grinding, physical, tough game,” Kreick said. “And tonight was as well. Two pretty similar games, and those are the kind of games that get you ready for the playoffs.”

It’s exactly the way Duggan was thinking.

“All these losses,” he said, “are helping us for sure, moving forward.”