Nashua South's Jaynilies De Jesus tries to wait out the jump by Pinkerton's Emily Leonard during Monday night's Division I clash at the Belanger Gym. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The Nashua High School South girls basketball team deserves a new nickname:

Call it Team Spunk.

“They’re scrappy and spunkyand they don’t stop until the final buzzer, no matter what the score,” Pinkerton coach Lani Buskey said Monday night after her Astros title contending team handed the Panthers a 73-50 defeat. “That spunky defense will drive anybody crazy.”

At times, that’s exactly what the Panthers (1-1) did, as they had no choice, giving up a significant height advantage to the 2-0 Astros. Yes, they lost by 23, but with 43 seconds left in the third quarter, Addison Borden hit a 3-pointer that cut the Pinkerton lead to 48-39.

“We are a team that aren’t going to get easy wins in this league,” South coach John Bourgeois said. “So we try to play with an edge all the time. Part of our identity is our press, getting offensive rebounds and doing all the little things that will give us a chance in a game.

“I think we have a group that is totally capable of doing that, and I thought they looked pretty good against a championship caliber team tonight.”

They did, hanging around after falling behind 9-2 at the start as the Astros were in control from the start. Pinkerton led 19-9 after one but didn’t run a way and hide, up 33-22 at the half.

However, the Astros aren’t a contender by being content to let an underdog hang around too long. They finished the third on a 5-0 run with Brooke Benz hitting a layup and Kaylee Dupuis buried an open 3-pointer to make it 53-39 after three. A 5-2 start to the fourth made it a 58-41 game and the Panthers couldn’t get any closer. Still, they made an impression, with guard Nicole De Jesus leading the Panthers with 16 points while Borden and Karina O’Donnell each had 12.

Pinkerton’s Sydney Gerossie, one of the top point guards in the state, led all scorers with 21 points while Brooke Benz added 18 and Dupuis 14.

The Astros beat the Panthers down the floor a few times for a lot of easy hoops.

“I have a strong veteran crew that starts and a really talented nice young bench that’s deep,” Buskey said. “There were lapses I didn’t like but any good coach is going to say that. It’s super early, we’re two games in.”

Besides being scrappy, the other things the Panthers try to do is hit the 3. They hit eight last night.

“I felt like we couldn’t buy one in Friday’s game (a comeback win over Goffstown),” Bourgeois said. “But to go out and have them see those go in is huge for them. We have good shooters on our team. A big thing in film last week was shot selection.”

And taking the right shots at the right time. Message received.

“We just have a really good group of kids,” Bourgeois said. “They want to work hard, they’re coachable, they’re tough, they’re not going to back down. We needed a game like this to kind of help us get to the next level.”

“John’s awesome, one of my favorite coaches,” Buskey said. “What he gets out of these girls is tremendous.”