Milford's Will Emerson gets a hand on the ball to try to stop Nashua North's Sean Battle (10) from getting to the hoop during Saturday's semifinals of the Nashua Holiday Tourney at Titans Gym. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The pressure was on.

The Nashua High School North boys basketball team was trying to get to the finish line Saturday to preserve a North-South Final for the Nashua Holiday Tournament at Titans Gym, but the Milford Spartans were making life oh, so difficult.

The Spartans, down double digits twice in the fourth quarter, had battled back to nearly take the lead and trailed just 63-60 with 26.4 seconds left.

But enter North’s young guards, junior Tyson Hoang and sophomore Andre Kargbo, as both combined for four free throws down the stretch for a 67-60 Titans win and a matchup with city rival Nashua South for the fifth straight year today at 4:30 p.m. at North. South pulled away from Souhegan 64-46 in the earlier semi.

North survived an amazing 13 3-point shots made performance by the Spartans.

“We knew coming in the one thing they wanted to do was shoot, we can’t give them anything, they’ll pull up from the volleyball line,” said North coach Kyle Tave after his first career win as the Titans mentor. “They were shooting the ball really well, they were hot … Tyson, Evan (Linscott) and Andre, we went with a little smaller lineup, those guys were in the right spots.They just made plays.”

But, as they proved, you simply can’t sleep on the Spartans. The teams were tied at 16 after one, North lead 31-26 at the half and 45-40 heading into the fourth quarter. North leads of 52-42 and 61-54 were short-lived.

“We have a bunch of shooters and we work on it every day for at least 30 minutes,” Spartans first-year head coach Ryan Emerson said. “We just had a few too many misses and a few too many turnovers. I’m proud of the guys.”

An example of that was the Spartans closing to 53-52 on four straight free throws by Ben Emerson following a Titan flagrant foul with 4:46 left. Milford also had a possession but North’s B O’Connor got a layup off a steal to keep North up 55-52.

Ben Emerson had 18, Will Emerson 14 and Tyler Constable 12 for the Spartans, while North was paced by 17 from Kargbo, who himself hit for five treys. Josh Sullivan added 14 as the Titans also used their size to their advantage.

Of course, now it just gets harder for North, but that’s the fun. North upset the Panthers in last year’s final.

“We’ve got one of the top five, six programs in the state in South,” Tave said. “They’re deep. We’ll just come and see what we’ve got. It’s a holiday tournament, and we had some guys come in and do some good things.”

Nashua South’s Francisco Rodriguez Malagon grabs a rebound away from Souhegan’s Joe Mayo (21) during Saturday semis in the Nashua Holiday Tournament at Titans Gym. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA SOUTH 64, SOUHEGAN 46

It looked early on like the Sabers, who came in 2-1 in Division II, would make life tough for the Panthers, leading 18-16 in the second quarter, but South went on a 14-0 run to lead 30-18 at the half and after three quarters were up 48-32 after a 3-pointer by Collin Langer.

“We talked about a few things we wanted to work on,” said South coach Nate Mazerolle said. “We want to run, we want to press, we want to execute better, and we did those things.”

“I liked how this game started,” Sabers coach Peter Pierce said, his team led by Joe Mayo’s 11 points and eight by Syrus Delshad, before he left the game with an apparent ankle injury in the second quarter. “We hung for about a quarter and a half and the wheels kind of came off for us. We’re a senior team that doesn’t have a lot of playing experience, so the more we play, the better we’ll get. I really think that’s the case for us. We’re not in a bad place.”

Daniel Karavanic had 14 and Shane Lemire added 13 to lead South, which had 10 players in the scoring column. Mazerolle played most of his players — they are still without the injured Josh Tripp — even when the Sabers were hanging around, down just 11 in the second half.

“Kids who bust their tails every day deserve time, and I’m glad we could do that,” he said. “Plus, we’ve got a lot of good basketball players. It’s not like there’s a major dropoff if we go deep into our bench. It worked out.”

And it’s worked out for a North-South rematch. Mazerolle said the Panthers would love to win the tourney after being upset by the Titans in the finals last year.

“It would certainly be a nice thing, the kids love it,” Mazerolle said. “After last year, getting upset, certainly want to take what we consider out title back.”