North players celebrate as Titan Robinson Rodriguez shows them the title plaque with their stunning victory over South in the Nashua Holiday Basketball Tournament at the Belanger Gym on Saturday. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – There’s something about a holiday basketball tournament that sometimes changes teams.

No one would’ve recognized the Nashua High School North boys team during the Nashua Holiday Tourney from the regular season squad that started the season 0-3. Nor would anyone Saturday have recognized the Titans’arch-rivals, Nashua South, a team that was scoring at a high clip through its games.

That’s because old fashioned Titan defense did the Panthers in to the tune of a stunning 47-44 final in the tourney championship game.

“I knew this Christmas tournament would bring us together,” said Titan senior guard Luke Peters, who held South’s scoring sensation, Josh Caruso, to 16 points. “It kind of does that every year. But we’re going to start streaking out of this.”

“I think this is kind of the formula we’re going to have to use moving forward,” North coach Steve Lane said. “Not so much the lower scoring stuff, because we left some opportunities out there to score. But the kids have really in the last two days have bought in to the defensive mentality and the philosophy. It usually takes a while with new guys, new kids. Hopefully we have a rotation now that we can use moving forward.”

It was their pace, their score, their game. Everything was physical, and tough. But the telling point was the final Panther possession, South needing a 3-pointer to tie with 22.5 seconds left, and couldn’t either find Caruso or get a shot off, needing a time out with 2.5 ticks to go. A literal last second 3-pointer wasn’t close.

What the Titans did to Caruso – who was banged up needing a bandage on his nose – the Panthers weren’t able to do to North center Robinson Rodriguez, who led all scorers with 23 points. He scored either from the outside or down in the low post.

“Robinson had a fantastic game,” South coach Nate Mazerolle said. “We talked about how we wanted to take something away from him and we didn’t do it very well. Certainly something from an exhibition game we can learn from, and when it matters we’ll be better prepared for him. As I told them, no matter what happened this weekend we’re a 3-0 basketball team.”

The teams will meet when it counts in the standings on Jan. 31, right back here at the Belanger. Meanwhile, Peters was effective on offense as well, getting 11 points. Josh Tripp was South’s only other scorer in double figures with 10.

North jumped out to a 16-6 first quarter lead and led 22-20 at the half. The Panthers seemed to get some offense in gear in the third quarter, leading 36-33 late before a 5-0 Titan run, capped by a Rodriguez layup that just beat the buzzer, gave North a 38-36 lead after three.

But it looked like a 7-0 run to start the fourth would send the Panthers on their way to a second straight holiday title up 43-38. Not so fast, as North had a 5-0 run of its own, and outscored the Panthers 9-1 over the final 3:54.

Alize Roig-Cortes tied it at 43 with two free throws and Josh Sullivan’s putback gave North the lead for good, 45-43, with 1:04 to play. Peters hit two free throws with 22.5 ticks left for a 47-44 lead.

Nashua North’s Robinson Rodriguez goes up for two vs. South’s Daniel Karavanic during Saturday’s finals of the Nashua Holiday Tournament at the Belanger Gym. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Nashua North’s Robinson Rodriguez goes up for two vs. South’s Daniel Karavanic during Saturday’s finals of the Nashua Holiday Tournament at the Belanger Gym. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

“I think at times we were so looking to get Josh the ball, we forgot the rest of us can play too,” Mazerolle said. “When we are very good we are passing and cutting. We didn’t do that at all today.”

Peters helped disrupt that.

“Luke’s assignment was every time Caruso was in the game, he was in the game,” Lane said. “When he came out of the game, Luke came out. Luke is a special athlete, Caruso is a special player as well. To hold him to whatever we held him to, was pretty remarkable.

“They should enjoy these last two days.”

SOUHEGAN 44, MILFORD 15

The Sabers rolled to take third place in the tourney, holding the Spartans to just eight points over the last three quarters while placing 11 in the scoring column themselves, led by Joe Mayo’s 10 points. Ethan Szopa led Milford with five.