Nashua North's Curtis Harris-Lopez flies to the hoop past Bishop Guertin's Javari Ellison during the Titans' 53-51 overtime win Friday night. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – It was the shot of the season, according to his coach.

Spencer Labrecque isn’t shy, either, about shooting the basketball, and after his 3-pointer gave Nashua High School North boys basketball team a lead it wouldn’t relinquish in a 53-51 overtime win over rival Bishop Guertin Friday night, why should he be?

“That’s all summer in the gym on the shooting machine, just constantly getting shots up,” Labrecque said after he trey with 1:32 left gave the Titans, who trailed by 10 heading into the fourth quarter, a 50-37 lead. “My teammates have confidence in me shooting the ball, that’s what I do. Make 3’s.”

Ironically, Labrecque let BG’s Dylan Santosuosso beat him along the baseline to hit a game-tying layup to send things into OT equal at 42.

“The biggest shot of the night was by Spencer,” North coach Steve Lane said. “Just manning up and saying ‘I lost my assignment in regulation, I lost him and let him score.’

“He told me he was going to do it. ‘I’m going to come out, hit the biggest shot of the game for us.’ Biggest shot of our season so far.”

Guertin looked in control in the third quarter after a rugged first half that ended with the Cards up 16-12. The Cards (13-5) got hot from the outside and after Nate Kane (game-high 20 points) hit his second 3-pointer of the period, followed by a Matt Santosuosso jumper, BG had a 32-20 lead.

But the fourth quarter was a different story, and it carried a bit into the overtime for the Cards. After Kane’s 20, Jack Sullivan added nine but Dylan Satosuosso was held to just seven.

“We made some uncharacteristic turnovers at the end,” said BG coach John Fisher, whose team now hosts Nashua South Monday in a play-in game. “And that’s just the way that goes.

“We’ve been in this situation many times. I’m not sure why we ran three plays wrong in a row that we walked through at 9 in the morning.”

Meanwhile, sophomore Jayden Montgomery (team-high 16 points) was a layup machine for the Titans, the only one doing much on offense in the first half before Sam McElliott got eight of his 10 points in the second half and OT.

North ramped up its defense in the fourth quarter, and its offense followed suit, with Trevor Labrecque starting the period with a 3-pointer to get rid of the double digit deficit that BG could never build back up.

The Titans held BG to six points in the period, and a 7-0 run, ending with a Curtis Harris-Lopez layup and Spencer Labrecque free throw, made it 42-40 North with 18.8 seconds left.

“I thought our defense was fairly decent all night,” Lane said. “We were having a tough time scoring. They’re long, they’re athletic, a tough matchup for us.

The kids found a way late in the third, early in the fourth get some easier hoops. I think the momentum changed as far as the tempo changed a little bit, in our favor.”

“That’s our thing, defense, defense, that’s it,” Spencer Labrecque said. “We preach that in practice, defense all the time. That will win us games, especially against a great team like that, BG.”

McElliott made a couple of free throws to keep the Titan lead at four late in the OT. Kane hit a layup with a couple of seconds to go but time ran out.

The two teams could see each other again next week if BG beats South.

“Win or lose tonight was a great test of where we’re at,” Lane said. “BG’s a really good basketball team, they’ve got super balance, big, they can shoot, got guys that can take you off the dribble.

“I’m not going to predict anything for next week but when we host somebody on Thursday night we’ll be ready to play.”

One step at a time, but you can bet the Cards would love a second chance at Titans Gym.

“These guys are hungry for Monday,” Fisher said. “They’d like to play that game right now. They’re not happy with how (last night’s game) closed out.”

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