Bishop Guertin's Hadara Ochieng looks to put up a shot against the tough defense of Central Catholic's Leah Deleon during Wednesday night's game at the Colligadome. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – It was a win-win for the Bishop Guertin High School girls basketball team on Wednesday night.

The Cardinals got two things they wanted at the Colligadome: A tough, competitive, hard-fought game against a very good basketball team, plus, of course, a win.

That came when they rallied from a five-point halftime deficit to beat Central Catholic of Lawrence, Mass., 73-69, to improve to 8-1 on the season. The contest featured a great scoring duel between the Cards Brooke Paquette, who scored 31 points, and the Raiders’ Ashley Dinges, who had 30. But Paquette added 14 rebounds and the Cards were able to overcome a whopping 14 3-pointers by CC.

“Our kids, just gut check time,” Kreick said. “We didn’t play particularly well on Saturday (a 50-32 loss to Wachusett Regional) in our first real competitive out-of-state game. Today was a challenge for our kids. I can’t tell you how they stepped up. They really competed very, very well. Paquette was unreal.”

Indeed she was, going 7 for 8 from the line in the fourth quarter (14 of 16 overall) and clinching the game with a steal to clinch it with 10 seconds left and the Cards up 71-67.

Guertin overall shot 28 of 33 from the line while the Raiders (4-2) only made it to the line four times. But that’s because they hit from the outside.

“Two spots in the game were really important,” Kreick said. “Hanging in there in the second quarter when we were having a hard time scoring, getting into halftime down five, a two possession game, was really important. We were struggling there for a while offensively.

“The second thing is that first half of the third quarter, the kids came out really aggressive. Little bit of a cushion. … but that team can shoot the basketball.”

What got the Cards through it?

“Definitely I think the intensity,” Paquette said. “We knew Central Catholic was a good team, we had to come out with good intensity, and we pushed through that — especially in the second half.”

“She’s awesome,” Raiders coach Casey Grange said of Paquette. “Their whole team is good, they play so well together. These are the types of games that we want.”

Guertin trailed by 10 in the second quarter but cut the deficit to 32-27 at the half. But in the third quarter, the Cards attacked the basket to take a 45-39 lead before an 8-0 Raider run, keyed by Dinges halted BG’s momentum as it was 52-all after three.

“They got a bunch of good looks in the paint,” Grange said. “We weren’t ready defensively in the third quarter, but we shot our way back into it.”

“Again, 32 minute game,” Kreick said. “Look, (Dinges) killed us, but we made her work hard for everything.”

The Raiders for a time lost their legs, on playing on the second of back-to-back nights after having two weeks off. And Guertin took advantage with a deciding run, keyed by Hannah Lynch’s six straight points (seven for the night) for a 62-55 lead with 5:30 to go. They stretched the lead to eight, 69-61, before Claire Finney (16 points) and Dinges hit treys to make it 69-67 with just under 30 seconds left. But Olivia Murray hit two huge free throws with 13.2 seconds left for that 71-67 lead. She had 16 points while Samantha Guertin added 15 for the Raiders.

Guertin is officially at the season’s halfway point, believe it or not,before mid-January.

“We got huge contributions from a bunch of kids,” Kreick said. “To me, a really entertaining, great competitive high school basketball game, middle of the season. Exactly what we were looking for.”