Pinkerton's Andrew Brander drives against Nashua North's Parth Miglani (4) during Sunday's Division I title game at Durham. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

DURHAM – Lost a bit in the disappointment of Sunday’s 90-76 Division I boys basketball title game loss to Pinkerton for Nashua High School North is the bright future.

Don’t be surprised if the Titans are back on the University of New Hampshire’s Lundholm Gym floor next year – or at least be one of the favorites to be.

Four of the five Titan starters in Sunday’s game will be, or at least will be eligible to be back: current juniors Parth Miglani, Alize Roig-Cortez, Robinson Rodriguez and Luke Peters.

The big loss will be point guard Jaden Pena, who had 30 points in the loss. Roig-Cortez certainly looks like a potential point guard, but of course that’s all to be determined.

Besides Pena, role players Zion Melendez, Peter Donovan, and Gavin Theriault will graduate. Donovan and Melendez were used on the double team on Pinkerton standout Jackson Marshall during Sunday’s game.

“The good thing about it is, they’ve had this experience,” Nashua North coach Steve Lane said. “They got three wins under their belt in the tournament. And all but basically my four seniors are back. Jaden’s not back, and the role guys like Gavin, Peter and Zion, who I love dearly the way they filled those roles to the T. I’m going to miss those guys, but we’ve got a good core back.”

But what a year it was, finishing at 17-5 with a 13-game win streak. How much fun was it?

“It was in stages of frustration early, not having an identity early, and then the kids just believing in what we were doing, and that we were going to lead them in the right direction,” Lane said. “And they believed in it. Thirteen in a row is pretty good in Division I, I don’t care what team you are, who you’re playing, when you’re playing. The character of the kids.”

LUDDEN UNSUNG

Dunham sang the praises after the game of Charlie Ludden, who held, or helped to hold Miglani to eight points and just one field goal.

“Charlie Ludden defensively against Parth Miglani,” Dunham said. “Miglani’s a phenomenal player. A First Team All-State kid. You can tell. He is a phenomenal, phenomenal player. But Charlie Ludden was awesome all year and tonight defensively.”

“He was off tonight,” Lane said of Miglani. “Parth does not obviously shoot the ball like that. When you miss a few, you start pressing.”

PINKERTON’S FUTURE

While North has a ton of players back, the Astros likely will be in a rebuild as they lose seven seniors, including Marshall and Andrew Brander, 60 of the 90 points they put on the board Sunday.

Got any more 6-9 guys hidden in the bowels of the Hackler Field House?

“I’ve got a couple in my pocket,” Dunham said with a chuckle. “We’ll see. All I know is we’ve got to back to work, right. It starts tomorrow (yesterday) for the younger kids. I’m going to miss these seniors, that’s for sure.”

BIG CROWD, PINKERTON RECORD, ETC.

The NHIAA and high school players, coaches and athletic directors had to be happy with the crowds at Lundholm for the four game hoop finals (Division I, II boys and girls) extravaganza. Lundholm’s capacity is 3,000 and there was standing room only for the North-Pinkerton boys game, as fans were in the entrance area just inside the doors.

Meanwhile, Pinkerton set two tourney scoring records. Their 101 points vs. Nashua South was an overall Division I/Class L tournament record, and their 90 points was a Division I/Class L finals mark. It’s been done by two other teams in other divisisions: Woodsville had 97 points in the 1969 Class M title game, and in another M final, Farmington scored 95 in 1970.

Also, while this was North’s first Finals appearance in school history – in its 20th season – this was Pinkerton’s first boys hoop title since 2010.

And how’s this for a record: North’s 76 points were the most scored by any Division I/Class L runnerup boys team ever. Amazing.

CONCORD CHRISTIAN HAD LOCAL FLAVOR

Concord Christian may be located in Concord, but the Kingsmen, who have incredibly won three straight girls state titles all in different classes, have five local starters. Hudson’s Lilli Carlisle had 29 points and 12 rebounds for the winners, while Emma Smith, also from Hudson, had 23 points. Carlisle is the daughter of the CC coach, Rebecca Carlisle. There was also Emma’s sister Kate, plus Nashua sisters Taylor and Kayden Rioux. The team will be moving up to Division I next season and has already developed a rivalry with Bishop Guertin, beating the Cardinals twice this year. All but Taylor Rioux will be back.

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