Nashua South's Nicole De Jesus (0) battles Alvirne's Taylor Small (3) and Adrienne Chipfunde (22) for the ball during Wednesday's Division I game at South's Belanger Gym. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Alvirne High School girls basketball coach Frank Girginis had one word for Wednesday night’s clash with local Division I rival Nashua South at the Belanger Gym.

“Better,” he said.

Yes, it was a 41-30 loss that sank the Broncos to 1-4 in this young Division I season. But this time the Broncos didn’t get run over by the Panthers like they did giving up 33 consecutive points during the Nashua Holiday Basketball Tournament.

From the South view, they opened things up in the fourth quarter to stay unbeaten (5-0) in regular season play, 6-1 overall.

“I don’t know if we did enough,” Panthers coach John Bourgeois said. “We have to get better at our situational play. Just stop beating ourselves, that was No. 1. Offensive rebounds, throwing the ball away, not communicating, we just had to not beat ourselves in order to win this game.”

The Broncos led 18-17 at the half, which said a lot about how determined they were,but the Panthers jumped out to a 28-21 lead they never lost thanks to a 6-0 run and led 29-23 at the end of the third period. Still, it took two big 3-pointers – one by Addison Borden with 4:35 left (36-24) and another by Hailey Cote inside of two minutes to go to fend off any Bronco hopes.

Lexi Floyd was the only Bronco in double figures with 12 points, while Julia Adams had seven. The Panthers were paced by Maggie Gallagher’s 14 points and seven from Cote. It was not an offensive masterpiece for wither team, for sure.

“Credit to Frank and Alvirne for making it a helluva game,” Bourgeois said. “Those girls came out ready to play, they wanted to win, and he got the most out of that group. That was a battle.”

That’s what Girginis likes the best about his team – the compete factor

“We’ve been working hard,” Girginis said. “I was so proud of my guys the way they competed. I consider South a top six team, I think they can make a run to the Final Four. I have so much respect for them. The way we handled – we were up at the half, we were right there in the third quarter, then it got away from us in the fourth quarter. Kudos to (the Panthers) they hit the shots.

“I just told them I’m so proud of them. Nobody’s giving us a chance at anything – just get better. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”

Well, it’s a sprint for the Panthers this week, anyway, because the postponement of this game Tuesday means games on back-to-back nights because they host Trinity tonight.

“Another very good team,” Bougeois said. “Hopefully this was good for us, we’ve got to learn from it, and turn it around in 24 hours here.”

And be able to say later tonight that one word – better.