Bishop Guertin's Hadara Ochieng (3) and Brooke Muller thwart Londonderrry forward Olivia Chau's pass attempt during the Cards' 75-45 Divison I quarterfinal win in Nashua on Friday night. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Call it a blast from the past.

The late coaching legend John Fagula, architect of the Nashua girls basketball dynasty, would tell budding new head coach Brad Kreick some seven years ago that “It’s a 32 minute game for a reason.”

On Friday night, Kreick remembered those words when his Bishop Guertin High School team, after struggling somewhat for the first 20 minutes of its Division I quarterfinal with Londonderry at the Colligadome, needed about only three to turn a close game into a blowout that ended in a 75-45 win.

As a result, the Cards will be given the opportunity to avenge their only in-state loss when they face No. 1 Pinkerton Academy on Tuesday at 8 p.m. in the Division I semis at Exeter. Pinkerton beat Merrimack 70-39 in their quarterfinal.

The BG run, shocking for its flash-freeze effect, was reminiscent of the style used by Fagula’s sudden impact-type Nashua teams of the 1980s and ’90s for certain. Let’s set last night’s stage: The spunky, 13th seeded Lancers (9-11) down 15 in the second quarter, had closed to within 36-31 with 4:33 left in the third. After a Kreick called time out, the Cards scored 12 straight points in just over a minute to start an incredible 24-4 run and led 60-35 after three periods. In all, it was a 31-point third quarter for No. 5 Guertin, now 17-3.

“We changed the press up a little bit and tried to really go after them,” Kreick said. “The game sped up and we got a bunch of turnovers and three 3’s in a span of 45 seconds. We just kept telling the kids, keep the pace, keep the tempo and sooner or later we’ll go on a run.

“Took us a little longer than I would have hoped, but it happened.”

The loud crowd at the Colligadome was waiting for it to happen, Brooke Paquette (12 points) hit two 3’s during the start of it, Liv Murray (team-high 16) hit another and after a steal and a Paquette layup, Lancer coach Jon Doherty had to call time out just to get over the shock. The trey by Kate Sloper (10 points) that got the Lancers within five was just a couple of minutes earlier but seemed like weeks.

“It was a wave,” Doherty said. “They just hit us with a giant wave. It’s typical for them. They’ll go on a run, 14, 15, 16 points. It’s tough, when you’v got multiple kids who can hit 3’s, and spread the floor, it’s tough. … We’re right there, right there, and all of a sudden it’s a wave that hits us and we don’t know how to come back from it.”

Molly Smith added nine points while Catelyn Wheeler and Brooke Muller added eight apiece. Olivia Chau led Londonderry with 16.

The Cards led 14-7 after one period and 29-21 at the half, but still didn’t show much explosiveness. That certainly changed.

“I think we had the slow start because there’s so much intensity and it was so loud,” Smith said. “So at halftime we had a conversation that we had to get it together and then we kind of really showed that going on a run.”

“They (the Lancers) were in a triangle-and-two and it took us a little while to figure it out,” Kreick said. “We didn’t execute through it, but I think eventually the kids figured it out.”

Kreick lately has been using a host of players and it helped.

“They were all great,” he said. “They all made great contributions, and that’s what it takes in a state tournament. It takes everybody.”

And it takes, as Kreick and the Cardinals have learned, all 32 minutes.

” We’ve always believed in that,” Kreick said. “It was a slugfest for two-and-a-half quarters, and then the dam broke a little bit. Tonight was perfect example of that, really.”

An example of what Nashua girls basketball fans were so used to watching decades ago.