Nashua North's Robinson Rodriguez shoots over Merrimack's Mikey Flerra during Tuesday's regular season finale for both teams in Nashua. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The way the Nashua High School North boys basketball team played early Tuesday afternoon, you’d have to think they’re ready for more.

But alas, the Titans’ 64-55 win over tourney-bound Merrimack is the end of the road for the 5-13 squad, perhaps surprisingly so. Ironically, it was North that looked like a playoff team instead of the 8-10 Tomahawks.

And that was after it was the other way around as Merrimack had started off to a 13-0 lead. Then the Titans went to their bench to get a spark.

“Give the kids credit,” North coach Steve Lane said. “Down 13-0 it did not look good. A spark for us was Lewis Mazerolle, going in, banging bodies, picking up two quick fouls, but diving on the floor, giving us some energy, so congrats to him. … It could’ve gone south really fast.

“After we were 0 for 7 on layups to start the game, it did not look good. Give the kids credit once again. They stuck with it. Not a lot of kids who are 4-13 are going to put that kind of effort in on the final game of the year.”

And that left Merrimack coach Austin Denton a bit peeved at his team, which now will likely finish 13th in the tourney seedings, and even tougher, has to chew on this one for a week until the Division I tourney begins a week from today.

“I’m not happy with anything that went on out here today,” Denton said. “That’s what happens when you don’t come out and play hard, don’t come out and play defense…We just decided we’d jack up 3s. When you jack up 3’s and the they don’t go in, you should’ve just tried to bury a team right away. Instead they (the Titans) came out, got confident, and it just carried over into the second half. … I was disappointed with how some of our guys played today.”

North got back into it, down 18-11 after the first quarter despite going scoreless for the first 5:40. Then Titan big man Robinson Rodriguez got going, scoring 12 of his game-high 23 points in the second quarter and North led 29-23 at the half.

And then, as Denton said, North’s momentum carried into the second half as they led 45-32 after three and began the fourth with two Alize Roig-Cortes hoops and his behind the back assist to Rodriguez for a 51-32 lead. That was that, and Cortes, who transferred from South two years ago, finished with 22.

Merrimack was led by 17 apiece by Nate Johnson and Noah Morrison. They have one more game but North’s Roig-Cortes and Robinson now move on along with five other seniors. Robinson got a nice ovation when he left the Titans Gym floor for the final time after a worthwhile career.

“It was really emotional,” he said, “just because of the year we had, this isn’t the year we all wanted, missing playoffs … Just leaving everything I had, a little bit of juice left, on the court. It felt great.”

Robinson smiled said he’ll reveal his “next chapter” in basketball “soon.”

Another North senior, Luke Peters, had gone through this kind of season in football and that team, too, had won its last game. But he took what he could from this one.

“We grew as people and that’s what basketball’s for,” Peters said. “I’m glad I did it.”

Still, it had to be a difficult winter,as North started out 0-3, then, after winning the Nashua Holiday Tourney finals over favored rival South, got back on track in the regular season to get to 3-3. And then a seven-game losing streak and 10 losses in their last 12 games happened. Their season ended on a quiet weekday afternoon during school vacation week in front of perhaps 100 fans whereas last year it ended in a packed Lundholm Gym on a March Sunday in the finals. But Lane, like his players, kept things in perspective.

“They’re all good,” he said. “I mean, 4-13, 5-13, whatever it is, they’re all still good, because the kids make it worthwhile. So whether we’re in the finals, like we were last year, or not qualifying (for the tourney) like this year, I treat it all the same.

From start to finish, their effort was always there, and I give them credit for that. It just didn’t work out for us record-wise.”