Nicole De Jesus (0) is double teamed by Concord Christian's Brynn Vaillant (left) and Emma Smith (right) in the second half of Thursday's 56-42 South loss. (Photo by Dan Attorri)

NASHUA — Coming off their worst loss of the season earlier in the week, the Purple Panthers needed to respond on Thursday night. And respond they did.

The Nashua High School South girls’ basketball team led the undefeated Concord Christian Academy Kingsmen at halftime, the first time CCA has trailed at the half all season, but the Kingsmen went a 14-0 run in the fourth quarter and held the Panthers scoreless for nearly six minutes to come away with a 56-42 victory at the Belanger Gym.

“Our kids fought hard, but we felt like we could’ve won this game,” Nashua South head coach John Bourgeois said. “I think we got away from our principles when it mattered most, when we were tired in the second half. (CCA) went on some runs, hit some shots. We got away from ourselves a little bit, but I’m proud of our kids for fighting.”

While Concord Christian is 13-0 at the top of the Division I standings, Nashua South sits in fourth at 9-3. The Panthers entered the week with a four-game winning streak that ended harshly with Tuesday night’s 70-28 defeat to defending champions Bedford.

“That was our biggest factor today, how do we respond from Tuesday,” Bourgeois said. “(Bedford) played very well and we did not. We played disconnected, we played scared. We played like we knew we were versing the defending champions. Today we needed to find our edge again and find our principles, and we did that for most of the game.”

Juniors Nitzann Alkalay and Maggie Gallagher stepped up to the task of marking Concord Christian All-State senior guard Emma Smith, who surpassed 2,000 career points in a game against Portsmouth earlier in the week. Alkalay and Gallagher led an aggressive, scrappy Panther defense to hold Smith in check.

Senior Brooke Berger scored nine points in the first half and sophomore Lexi McGuire connected on a pair of 3s to help South take a 14-11 lead at the end of the first quarter and a 29-22 lead at halftime.

“This was a bit of a rock fight,” Concord Christian head coach Matt Smith said. “(South) played good, physical defense. They had a decent game plan and we came out a little timid with their physicality. Early on we had girls that weren’t looking to drive against (South’s) pressure.”

Emma Smith was relatively held in check for long stretches of the game, but still managed 16 points. Fellow senior Sophia Capsalis scored all 16 of her points in the second half, 11 of them in the third quarter, to cut South’s lead to 37-36 heading into the fourth.

Smith had a layup to give CCA a 40-39 lead with 6:31 to go (the Kingsmen’s first lead since 2-0 at the start of the game) as part of a 14-0 run. Freshman Brynn Vaillant (15 points) had a pair of 3s in that run, helping Concord Christian lead 50-39 with under four minutes to go when Alkalay hit a corner 3 to mercifully end the run.

“In the fourth quarter we started to get stubborn and didn’t play with each other,” Bourgeois said. “We forced some things that weren’t there. We went into traffic to try to get a foul call that’s not there. It worked against us instead of trusting the system that we have that got us open shots in the first half.”

Berger finished as the Panthers’ top scorer with 10 points, while Gallagher (seven), McGuire (six) and sophomore Anya Challinger (six) followed. Seniors Addie Borden and Nicole De Jesus both finished with five points.

After going through the gauntlet of their schedule, the Panthers have more favorable matchups ahead.

Brooke Berger (5) drives to the basket while being guarded by Concord Christian’s Brynn Vaillant. Berger led the Purple Panthers with 10 points. (Photo by Dan Attori)

“We knew this was probably the toughest week of the whole regular season, but we don’t take anyone lightly,” Bourgeois said. “Everything is close, we’re finding ways to win close games. We’ve got to take everyone seriously.”

Despite the losses of this week, Bourgeois knows that they provide valuable experience.

“We knew we had to play with pressure and be the attackers tonight and they did, we just need to do that for four quarters. … These are games that we need for learning to help us (prepare) for playoffs.”

South has another tough contest on the road at Manchester Central-West (8-4) on Friday night.