Alvirne's Garrett Hall drives to the hoop; against Nashua South's Daniel Karavanic during Wednesday night's Division I clash at the Belanger Gym. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – They were champing at the bit since they got the word Tuesday afternoon that they’d have to wait an extra day to face Nashua South at the Belanger Gym thanks to Mother Nature.

It’s almost as if the Alvirne High School Broncos took it out on the Panthers, as they attacked and attacked their way to a 67-63 Division I boys basketball win over South that was not as close down the stretch as the final score indicated.

“Obviously everyone was ticked that the game was cancelled last night,” Broncos coach Sam Bonney-Liles said after the win. “But we were able to practice, I told them to ‘Re-frame yourselves. It’s another opportunity to practice for this game.’ So we got to put a couple of new things in, it was a good opportunity, and we took advantage of it.”

The 3-1 Broncos led 14-13 after one, but expanded things even with senior big man Garrett Hall on the bench in foul trouble in the second quarter to lead 38-28 at the half. The Panthers, down 41-28, battled back to 45-43 at the end of three. Alvirne led 54-50 with 3:18 left but a South turnover turned into a 6-2 run that made it 60-52 with two minutes left. Alvirne went 16 of 22 from the line in the final quarter which helped, too.

Jake Nase led the Broncos with 18 points while Hall and Sean Chipfunde had 15 apiece and Ulysses Kangar 13.

But the key was the Broncos – who probably felt like it was a home game with a loud student section right behind their bench — were able to get inside with a lot of easy hoops.

“Lots of easy baskets,” South coach Nate Mazerolle said, his team now 3-3 in Division I. “We’re not very good defensively. It is that simple. We get beaten off the dribble too easily, we don’t have good enough help side there. They’re well coached. … We played with our hands. We fouled a lot.”

South was paced by Daniel Karavanic’s 20 points, and 18 by Shane Lemire. But the problem was twofold: Karavanic fouled out with 3:45 to play, called for a charge, and when Hall was on the bench for all but one minute of the second quarter, the Panthers really didn’t take advantage by going down low that often to their 6-8 junior.

“I turned to my (assistant) coach and said ‘We haven’t made any headway with (Hall) on the bench’,” Mazerolle said. “I’ll go back and watch the film, but we just don’t execute what we’re trying to do very well. When we run, we’re good; when we have to play real basketball, and do what we practice every day, we’re not very good at that.”

But Bonney-Liles knew things were going to get dicey in the second half and his team would have to weather the storm – and they did.

“We were up 10 at the half, and I told the guys this second half is going to be a totally different game,” he said. “They’re going to pressure you, and try to make it ugly, but as long was we take care of the ball, make passes, do the little things, we’ll be fine. We left a lot of points on the board in the second half with free throws, but you’ve got to learn how to win on the road. I’m really proud of the guys tonight.

“This is huge. It’s our first regular season game in almost three weeks. We’ve had a lot of time to prepare.”

It was, for the Broncos, worth the wait.