Nashua South's Daniel Karavanic, center, battles to get the ball before Pinkerton's Brady Sullivan during Tuesday night's game at the Belanger Gym. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The Pinkerton Academy boys basketball team is one win away from the key to the city. Alert Mayor James Donchess.

The Astros, after beating Nashua North in Friday night’s season opener, came to town and held off Nashua South 64-60, Tuesday night at the Belanger Gym. If they beat Bishop Guertin at home on Jan. 12, well, get the ceremony ready at City Hall.

“We’re a run-and-gun team, a 3-point shooting team,” Astros coach Mike Dunham said. “If our shots aren’t falling, we’ve got to defend. We didn’t defend great tonight, but again, anytime you come to Nashua South getting a win, it’s always a good win.”

The 1-1 Panthers, minus senior standout Josh Tripp (banged up from football, likely out til early to mid-January) gave it their best shot. They led 16-8 after the first quarter, but were down 32-27 at the half thanks to a 7-2 Astros run.

South grabbed an early lead in the third quarter on consecutive layups from Daniel Karanavic (19 points, eight rebounds) and Francisco Rodriguez (game-high 22) to lead 38-34, but Pinkerton’s Brady Sullivan’s layup gave the Astros the lead for good, 42-40, with 2:35 left in the third. Sullivan led the Astros with 17 points while Wilson Youssef added 15.

“The second quarter I think was a little bit of a turning point,” South coach Nate Mazerolle said. “We got the lead back in the second half, but we got a little tired. They run the floor very well. We like to say on our big floor, we have more of an advantage. But they had the advantage tonight.”

Still, South was only down four, 45-41 after three. But when Pinkerton’s Josh Phanor hit a trey and a layup, the Astros went up 52-42 with 6:21 to play. The Panthers were having trouble getting stops.

Rodriguez’s layup got South to within 57-55 with just under three minutes to play, but Adam Ajouz’ putback was a back-breaker to give the Astros a 59-55 lead and they pulled away with the clock on their side.

Pinkerton’s Josh Phanor goes to the hoop past Nashua South’s Shane Lemire (3) during Tuesday night’s game at the Belanger Gym. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Without Tripp, the Panthers got others involved, but Karavanic has carried quite a load over the first two games in a lot of categories. Yet Tripp “rebounds, scoring, controlling, and our best defender,” Mazerolle said. “I thought Shane Lemire (13 points) and Francisco helped with the scoring, and Daniel, he’s a little banged up too, quite frankly.”

Yet Mazerolle knows his team can compete. He’s as much a fan of the game as he is a coach, and he liked a lot of what he saw last night.

“All things considered, obviously no moral victories, but that was a great game a really good high school basketball game,” he said. “And they’re a good team.”

There’ll be more of those down the road, for sure.

“Can’t wait,” Mazerolle said.