Merrimack's Nate Johnson goes up for an easy layup as Nashua North's Sean Battle, center, and Evan Linscott can only watch during Tuesday's regular season finale at the H. Dana Taylor Gym. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

MERRIMACK – Sure, Tuesday morning’s all-local boys basketball regular season finale between Nashua High School North and Merrimack at the H. Dana Taylor Gym featured two 6-11 teams.

A nothing game, right?

Well, not so fast. The winner would have a shot at the last spot in the 15-team tournament, the loser would be done. And when it was over, it was the Tomhawks who earned the right to scoreboard watch later in the evening thanks to a 76-63 win.And, thanks to what they saw — Bishop Guertin beating Winnacunnet — they appear to have unofficially grabbed that 15th seed.

“It was great, the kids kind of came out and responded,” Merrimack coach Austin Denton said. “I just thought being the senior guys, we were just bigger and stronger. Hopefully we live for another game.”

To do that, the ‘Hawks needed some help from local rival Bishop Guertin, hoping for the contending Cards to wrap up their season with a win at Winnacunnet. They did just that, 68-66 at Hampton, ending Winnacunnet’s hopes.

For the Titans, who were down 35-33 at the half but eventually couldn’t stay in it vs. an older, aggressive Tomahawk team, the 6-12 season still had its bright side. They were in the mix down to the final game.

“Even though it wasn’t a playoff game (technically), it was still a playoff game, so it meant something,” North first-year coach Kyle Tave said, his team led by senior Justin Sullivan’s 23 points. “So for these guys to play Game 18 when it means something, hopefully they got a taste of that and know what it’s like now.”

Merrimack started the third quarter with an 11-2 run, and although the Titans got to within five, Merrimack got back to a 55-45 lead after three. By halfway through the fourth, it was 63-49.

“This game, had to have it, you tell that to the kids and it kind of goes a long way,” Denton said. “In the second half, we came out and kind of just beat them up physically and mentally.”

Merrimack had Nate Johnson, and North didn’t, which was a factor. The senior scorer had 17 but he was one of four ‘Hawks in double figures. Brody Towle led the way with 18, while Cayden Dine and Owen Ponder had 13 each, going strong to the hoop.

“They’re a fast team, they like to get up and down the floor,” Denton said of North. “The big thing was ‘Make your layups, make them take it out underneath the hoop so we could get back. … We got some layups that were kind of wide open for us.”

Nashua North’s Evan Linscott heads to the hoop vs. Merrimack’s Zach Retey (10) and Cayden Dine during Tuesday’s Division I clash in Merrimack. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Cam Borges chipped in with 16 for the Titans.

“We were there, it was just a matter of man-on-man, they were bigger, stronger, faster,” Tave said. “We got to the foul line, we did the things we wanted to. We needed defensively to get a couple of back-to-back stops. Against a team like that in a smaller gym. …

“Overall I was very pleased with how the kids responded to the change in the program. Hopefully moving forward, that kind of set the foundation a little bit for what we want to do.”