Big fourth quarter lifts Nashua North girls basketball over Pinkerton

NASHUA - The Nashua High School North girls basketball team needed something to turn around its season.

Ricky Oliver sure hopes Friday night could be that something.

The Titans rallied to take the lead from Pinkerton Academy in the fourth quarter and closed the game on a 14-2 run to pick up a 62-46 win over the Astros.

North (5-4) got 17 points from Taylor Choate, including 7 of 9 from the free throw line, and 12 points each from Michaela Choate and Isabel Dunning. But it was a pair of 3-pointers in the second half that sparked the Titans to the win.

Adaeze Okorie cut Pinkerton's lead to five points with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to end the third quarter, and Sara Cordova hit another 3 with late in the fourth that started the Titans on their game-clinching run.

"The game-changer was when Sara Cordova hit that 3 in the corner, or when Dezi (Okorie) hit that 3 at the buzzer to end the third quarter," Oliver said. "Then Sara hits that big 3 in the corner. She hadn't done a lot the whole game. She hit that big shot and it was crazy.

The win was the second in a row for North after a four-game losing streak.

"This one is huge," Oliver said. "The four losses in a row were close games, but we dug ourselves a hole and we couldn't get out of it. We couldn't get out of that hole. (Friday) we dug a couple of holes, but we were still able to look out over the top and see that we were still in this."

Pinkerton (7-3) got 12 points each from Valerie Martin and Sara McLeman, but after taking an eight-point lead with 48.1 seconds left in the third quarter, the Astros scored just six points the rest of the way.

"This has been an issue with us," Pinkerton coach Lani Buskey said. "A lack of focus and deviating from a game plan, or keeping with it for a little while, and then deciding not to do it, and it cost us.

"We've been getting away with it against weaker teams because our talent has beat them, but this is a game where focus and heart came into play and we bombed in the fourth quarter."

After Okorie's 3-pointer to end the third, the Titans needed just 51 seconds to cut the lead down to one, 40-39, at the start of the fourth. McLeman hit two free throws for Pinkerton to make it a three-point game, but two baskets by Okorie and a three-point play by Micheala Choate put North up 46-42 with 4:43 left to go.

"Micheala had a coming out game (Friday)," Oliver said. "She played very well. She's a freshman, she played middle school basketball last year, and here she is, big time, starting as a freshman. She is playing major minutes against big seniors that push her around a little bit."

Micheala Choate's free throw was the first of 14 foul shots that the Titans made in the fourth quarter, and North was 16 of 21 for the game, outscoring the Astros by 12 at the line.

Dunning made two foul shots to put the Titans up 48-44 with 3:20 left, but Martin came back with a basket to make a four-point game.

Oliver called a timeout with 2:38 to play and Cordova's 3 out of the timeout made it 51-44 North and seemed to put the Astros away.

"I called more timeouts than I ever call, but we needed to put them on the track when it got a little wobbly," Oliver said. "The game plan was solid and we stayed to it. Hopefully this is the reboot of the season for us."