Nashua North's Parth Miglani puts up a shot during this past Saturday's Division I quarterfinal win over Windham. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

The season was reaching a point when Nashua High School North boys basketball coach was completely perplexed in mid-January.

The Titans had just lost their fourth straight regular season game, 55-54, to upstart Keene at home, and in 48 hours they were going to have to take on a surging Nashua South team that had won seven in a row overall, including one over the Titans in the finals of the Nashua Holiday Tourney.

At that time, if someone were to tell Lane that his team would be back in the Division I semifinals for a third straight year, he would have said, “Thank you so much,” he said. “It’s a credit to the kids. Coach (assistant Chris Gaudreau) and I were talking on the way home from that (Keene game), we’re 4-4, and he said, ‘We have no identity.’ They have an identity now.”

That is the one of the hottest current team in Division I. After that Keene loss, the Titans went on to beat Nashua South and haven’t lost since, a streak of 13 straight wins, including tourney triumphs over Goffstown in the prelims and Windham in the quarters.

“They guard, they get the right shots for people, they share the ball, they defend and rebound at needed times,” Lane said of that identity. “(The semis) are going to be a huge challenge, we’ll see what we can do.”

And we’ll see today as the Titans will have a rematch with No. 2 Bedford at 5:30 p.m. at Exeter High School. The No. 2, 19-1 Bulldogs outlasted North in a tight 81-76 game that left the Titans with the feeling they could stay with the ‘Dogs and other contenders. They didn’t play top seed Pinkerton this season.

“Two teams that didn’t quit, and they’re very good,” Lane said that night after the loss. “… But I think we proved ourselves a little bit tonight that we can hang with anybody if we want to play with effort and have the right attitudes.”

Bedford scorer Luke Soden burned the Titans for 34 points. But also, Bulldogs big man Austin Kasyjanski added 18 points, helped out by the fact North’s center Robinson Rodriguez was in foul trouble.

The Titans are basically a pressure team, tenacious in their ability to go after the basketball. Junior Luke Peters, inserted into the starting lineup, has set that tone, while junior Parth Miglani and senior guard Jaden Pena have provided clutch scoring – among others.

North will be looking to make its first boys hoop final ever after two straight semifinal appearances at Exeter, losing to Goffstown in 2022 and last year to Pinkerton. They’re hoping the third time is the charm.

ALVIRNE-MILFORD HOCKEY FACES CHALLENGE

The No. 6 Admirals (10-7-2) will face a battle will certainly be an underdog in facing No. 2 Oyster River (14-3-2) at 7:30 p.m. tonight in the Division II boys hockey semis at Concord’s Everett Arena.

The Bobcats are a hot team, having won nine straight, including Saturday’s 4-2 quarterfinal win over No. 7 Goffstown. The streak ironically began with a 3-2 win over the Admirals back on Feb. 3 at Skate 3 Arena in Tyngsborough, Mass.

“Oyster River will be a good test,” Admirals coach Dave Thibeault said. “They are a deep, talented team who we have to outwork. That will be the key. Physical play and tight gaps will be the difference.”

And the Admirals are hoping senior netminder Trent Scarbro will continue to be just that – a difference.

“Trent has come on strong after facing some adversity in the beginning of the year when he was outworked by sophomore Kian Corcoran,” Thibeault said.

That changed, and Scarbro regained the starting job midway through January, although, as Thibeault noted, “Havig a great goalie tandem has also been a great asset and advantage for our squad.”

The other thing is the Admirals have no one player that opponents can key on. Like the Nashua North hoop team, the Admirals also have an identity.

“The best thing about this year has been the work ethic,” Thibeault said. “While other teams have stars, our identity is one based off of blue collar work ethic. We tell the kids to bring their workboots ready to work.”

That work continues tonight and they hope it stretches to Saturday’s finals at Manchester’s SNHU Arena.

GIRLS HOOP TTLE GAMES SNAFU?

The NHIAA smartly hasn’t set times for this weekend’s basketball finals at UNH, and it will be interesting to see how it all works out. Why? There’s speculation the girls hoop finals in Division I and II, or at least one, may have to be moved to Sunday because UNH men’s basketball is hosting an America East quarterfinal on Saturday at 3 p.m. Thus the likelihood is at best only one girls game, if any, could be played. But that’s not nearly official.

In the past couple of years, the Division I and II boys and girls hoop finals have been on a Sunday at Lundholm, all one day. This year the plan was to split them up, the girls on Saturday and the boys on Sunday. But it looks more and more like all four will be on Sunday. Stay tuned.

NORTH HOOP GAME ON NASHUA ETV TAPE DELAY

Speaking of staying tuned, tonight’s North-Bedford hoop semis will be shown on Nashua ETV at some time on Thursday, via tape delay. Word is Nashua South boys coach Nate Mazerolle may be making his ETV debut as a game analyst.

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