Nashua North guard Jayden Montgomery puts up a shot for two beyond the reach of Timberlane's Evan Roeger (32) during Wednesday night's Division I prelim game in Nashua. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Win and survive. That’s how the Nashua High School North boys basketball team likes to play.

And they do it much more often than not, including Wednesday night’s 68-53 Division I quarterfinal triumph over No. 15 Timberlane at Titans Gym.

“I’m proud of the guys for the win and survive mentality,” North coach Steve Lane said. “But we’re definitely going to have to improve on things for Saturday, regardless of who we play.”

That will be No. 7 Exeter, which dashed the hopes of a North-South quarterfinal with a 67-58 win over the Panthers. But if the No. 2, 16-3 Titans can keep up their tenacity which has been their trademark, they’ll be a tough out.

“That’s what’s got us to this point,” Lane said. “Our defense gave up an uncharacteristic lot of points, 53 is a lot, but you’re playing against a good team. They (the Owls) could have easily been 11-7 (instead of 7-11). So I’m proud of the kids for a good win tonight.”

The Owls jumped out to a 14-8 first quarter lead but North went on a 9-0 run that trickled into the second quarter,and led 28-24 at halftime.

It was still a close game until North reserve Andres Acorn was Andres the Giant despite his 5-8 stature with two killer 3-pointers 23 seconds apart with a minute to go in the third, putting the Titans up 43-33.

“Two huge 3’s, created separation, we gave him the game ball tonight,” Lane said. “Huge 3’s. Fearless.”

“They hit a few shots late in the third that made the difference,” Timberlane coach Jeff Baumann said. “Those were big shots. Credit to (Acorn) for making those shots. We tried to work on a couple of the other guys and he stepped up and made a couple of big ones in that spurt.”

North freshman Parth Miglani (18 points) hit a big 3-pointer early in the fourth to increase the gap to 46-33.

“Could you tell that was his first tournament game ever?” Lane said.

No, which is why this Titan team is tough. So were the Owls, who were led by 18 points by Luke Superenant and closed to within 57-51 with 2:14 left after a steal and layup by Ethan Stewart (12 points).

“I thought our guys fought hard,” Baumann said. “We had a shot. … We felt we had a shot coming up here. Not tonight.”

No, because North just had too many players step up. North point guard Jayden Montgomery (nine points) found Miglani for an easy layup, the fourth time they connected like that in the game, to make it 60-51 with 1:44 left.

“Jay has such good vision,” Lane said. “Trevor’s (Labrecque, also 18 points) such a good player. But kids like (Jack) Peters, Derek (Finlay, 13 points) …”

Keep doing the job. But it wasn’t easy.

“Credit to Timberlane, I thought they played super tonight,” Lane said. “Kind of neutralized some of our pace that we like to play at. And Sean (Owls point guard Chanakira, 10 points) was great tonight.

“When we did create pace we were effective. Then it was a matter of making free throws and layups down the stretch, finding guys who were open.”

They’ve found guys, period. With Jack Sullivan (hand) and Thomas Laurendi (leg) both out for the season, they’ve had no choice.

“Two huge hits,” Lane said. “Can’t make excuses though. We’re going to scrap and claw the rest of the way.”

But that always seems to suit the Titans just fine.