Nashua South's Alexandria Kapopoulos tries to pass the ball along the baseline despite the defense of Keene's Marin Shaffer and Delilah Hatheway (33) during the Blackbirds' 44-38 win Friday night at the Belanger Gym. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Perhaps a month from now the Nashua High School South girls basketball team will be able to win a game such as the one they lost to Keene, 44-38 on Friday night at the Belanger Gym.

At least that’s the hope.

“We’re an inexperienced team, we’ve made a lot of mistakes on key possessions in both of our last two (and only) games,” South coach John Bourgeois said after watching his team turn the ball over 30 times. “You’re not going to win a game with 30-plus turnovers. We have to learn how to take care of the ball.”

It was clear that the Panthers, with very few returnees from last year’s tourney team, hadn’t shared court time with each other long. And it was very obvious that after three quarters of 24-24 lackluster basketball, the Blackbirds took over the game down the stretch with rebounding, outside shooting, and free throws (5 of 6 down the stretch.)

“I tell my girls to play chess not checkers,” Keene coach Stacey Massiah said after his team picked up its first win of the season (1-3). “Sometimes you get stagnant, not know where to go, what’s the next move. I told them definitely a good game between both teams, first one to blink. They definitely took that in stride.”

And hit their stride after the Panthers tied it at 33 with 3:09 left on a Karina O’Donnell trey. The ‘Birds went on a 7-0 run to take full control, up 40-33 with a minute left. Cadance Gilbert’s traditional three point play after Keene’s offensive rebounding took hold put the visitors up for good at 36-33. Molly Chamberlin hit a layup and Gilbert a jumper and it was just about over.

Gilbert scored all seven of her points in the fourth quarter, while Elyza Mitchell led all scorers with 20, 14 in the first half.

The Panthers were led by Mazie Barker’s 14 points – she was active defensively with four steals – and 10 from Lizzie DeRusha. Morgan Gillis added seven, but despite the fact scoring and flow was a problem (20-20 at the half and 24-24 after three), it became clear 38 points was not going to be enough.

“We have to be able to fix our mistakes from game to game and we haven’t done that yet,” Bourgeois said. “Our biggest thing has been giving them second possessions all game long. That’s what happens, they convert, and we were in trouble.

“We have to come together as a team, make sure we do our jobs on offense and defense, and we’re not there yet.”