Nashua South's Linc Vanderhost flies to the hoop against Merrimack's Ryan Elliott (32) during Tuesday night's Divison I game at the H. Dana Taylor Gym. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

MERRIMACK – Things were getting dicey for the Nashua High School boys basketball team at the H. Dana Taylor Gym on Tuesday night.

The Panthers were playing great basketball, frustrating Merrimack for a 14-point halftime lead. But by early in the fourth quarter, that lead had shrunk to two. Then suddenly, like good teams do, they found their way to a 68-54 win.

“We were stagnant,” South coach Nate Mazerolle said. “They dictated tempo, that’s what they wanted to do. … We tried to change things up, put a little pressure on, changed our pressure in the fourth quarter. Not that it was great, but it just changed the tempo.”

The Panthers, now 8-3, needed the win to take a little of the pressure off going into Friday night’s Battle of the Bridge vs. arch rival Nashua North. Meanwhile, Merrimack fell to 5-5, and will try to bounce back Thursday night here vs. Bishop Guertin.

The Tomahawks did a good job of holding South sharpshooter Josh Caruso to just two points in the third quarter after he had 16 in the first half. But eventually, it’s just not that easy to do as the senior finished with 26 ponts.

“The three things we talked about in the locker room was clear the glass, don’t turn it over, and control Josh,” Merrimack coach Austin Denton said. “Josh runs down and we don’t get the chance to find him or set it, and he buries a 3. He’s tough. Tough to game plan for. You really have to concentrate on him, if not, he’s going to kill you.”

Meanwhile, Merrimack lost one its top scorers early in Mikey Flerra to a leg injury. It just made the job tougher.

However, the ‘Hawks, down 39-25 at the half, held South to just six points in the third and trailed just 45-41 heading into the fourth. Nate Johnson tried to pick up the scoring slack and his two-points put the ‘Hawks to within two, 45-43, a minute into the third quarter.

But then South’s Daniel Karavanic nailed a 3-pointer to give his team some breathing room, the start of an 8-0 run capped by a Caruso trey that put the Panthers up by 10 with 5:33 to play. That was pretty much it. Besides Johnson, Ryan Elliott added 11 for the ‘Hawks.

“I was happy how we responded,” Denton said. “We went over those three things and we didn’t do any of them. We came out in the third quarter and picked it up a little bit. … But they put up 68 points. Got to do a better job of protecting the ball.”

The reason they had a hard time of stopping the transition game off turnovers was the play of South’s Linc Vanderhost. His disruptive defense led to his very valuable 12 points, most of them in transition.

“Linc is having a very good season,” Mazerolle said. “He gets in the paint, and he’s such a menace on defense. He’s a game changer in that regard.”

Right now, the way the Panthers are responding when tested, it could be a season changer.