Nashua North's Luke Peters celebrates a layup by teammate Robinson Rodriguez, center, in the fourth quarrter of Friday night's Battle of the Bridge vs. Nashua South at Titans Gym. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Their annoying wait is over.

The Nashua High School North boys basketball team knew it was better than the squad that lost its last five, dating back to the finals of the Nashua Holiday Tournament.

Friday night the Titans proved it, beating the team that put them on their tough path, rival Nashua South 67-58 in the Battle of the Bridge.

“This was huge,” North junior sharpshooter Parth Miglani, who led all scorers with 26 points, said. “We know we’re really good as a team, but coming in with a new team this year we really got to learn how to play with each other … Just pushing the ball up, trusting each other, I think today was the day it all clicked.”

The Titans climbed back over the .500 mark at 5-4 in Division I, and real key was they held the Panthers’ dynamic high-scoring guard duo of Zac Castonguay and Josh Caruso to a combined 35 points. Caruso was bothered by a bad foot, and that plus the tough Titan defense was too much to overcome. The junior guard had 12 points, but in the second half he was limited to just two free throws. Castonguay had 23, but wasn’t able to make a difference down the stretch.

“Between Josh and Zac, they are two of the best players in the state,” North coach Steve Lane said. “They had 24 of their 32 in the first half. We went in at halftime and said we have to figure out a way to limit their attempts. We D’d up, did a little funny stuff there in the middle of the third quarter, that kind of got them out sync. ,,, and kids like Zion (Melendez), Luke Peters, and Alize (Roig-Cortes) just guarded people. And it was fun to watch.”

“Those are two great players,” Miglani said. “They average 20-plus. In our defensive assignments, we wanted to make it as hard for them as possible. At the end of the day, if those two aren’t scoring, their team isn’t going to flow the same way.”

It didn’t. South led 32-28 at the half after being down 20-14 after one, thanks in part to 10 Caruso points. But he was held scoreless in the third and North regained a 45-42 lead.

South’s Isaac Ndubuisi had a traditional three-point play to start the fourth quarter, tying it at 45, but then the Titans went on an 8-0 run that gave them control, a key play an offensive rebound by Luke Peters off a missed free throw, and he tapped it out to former Panther Roig-Cortes who buried a trey for three of his 21 points. At the foul line had been Robinson Rodriguez, who got shaken up the other night vs. Keene and didn’t start last night but was huge inside with 12 points.

“I just knew physically I had to push through it,” Rodriguez said. “I couldn’t let my team down for this one and just had to do my job.”

Anytime the Panthers got to within two the rest of the way, North would bury a big hoop, with 3-point daggers by Jaden Pena and Miglani. South just couldn’t generate the offense it was used to, and the 6-3 (8-4 overall) Panthers’ seven game win streak (five in Division I) came to an end.

“We don’t make excuses,” South coach Nate Mazerolle said. “We talked about it all week, we often win games because we make plays. We don’t execute well in the fourth quarter especially and that really hurt us.

“Couple key breakdowns on the glass, too. They had a missed free throw rebound that turned into a 3, and another rebound that fell out of our hands and the y scored and I think an ‘and one’. That’s them working harder or making a play when we didn’t. … No rhythm. We talked about getting some rhythm, but we didn’t get any.”

There was a reason for that.

Nashua North’s Robinson Rodriguez goes up for two despite the efforts of Nashua South’s Daniel Karavanic to stop him during Friday night’s Battle of the Bridge at North. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

“Our effort was a little different tonight,” Lane said. “Our attitudes were a little different. Not because we were playing South, but just over the last couple of days what we’ve done practice-wise, to re-enforce the basics and fundamentals. We didn’t have a huge specific game plan except to limit Josh and Zac, and we did that in the second half.

“We were confused a couple of times,” Mazerolle said. “Time out, white board, set up a play and we just didn’t run it the right way. When that happens, you’re not in sync, bad shot, turnover, and that happened several times.”

But now, with the losing streak over, North can get on with the rest of its season, with Bishop Guertin coming to Titans Gym on Tuesday while South hosts Exeter on Monday. As Lane said, “Finally I can smile for a couple of days.”

“It was tough,” Miglani said of the losing streak. “But we know we’re better than back, and that we can always go back from those losses….Honestly, we’re not really worried about the losses, we’re worried about getting better.”

Looks like they did just that last night.

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