Bishop Guertin boys basketball holds off Nashua South (video)

NASHUA - Sam Mullett got knocked down and was lying on the court in pain.

With the Bishop Guertin High School boys basketball team battling down the stretch Friday night with Nashua South, Mullett had to come out, but told himself, he was going to do whatever he could to get back into the game.

And when he did, the Cardinals senior helped put the game away.

Mullett hit two free throws with 19.1 seconds remaining to give Bishop Guertin a two-possession lead, and after a Panthers turnover, he went to the line again and knocked down two more, helping to give the Cardinals a 52-46 win over South in a Division I game.

"Repetition," Mullett said of what he was thinking before the first free throw. "What I go through in practice, just focusing on my free throw. It felt great. Even if they told me no, I couldn’t go back in, I was going to go back in. I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. I don’t think I can sit down right now."

Mullett finished with 12 points and Dylan Santosuosso led Bishop Guertin (13-2) with 13 points before he left late in the game after aggravating an ankle injury. John Sullivan was also in double figures for the Cardinals with 11 markers.

"They feed off each other’s energy," Bishop Guertin coach John Fisher said. "We only have three seniors, but the maturity they play with … I think what helps us is we’ve had a lot of close games. The guys know how to fight through it. We’ve been down a lot of times and know how to come back."

South (9-6) got 14 points from Ivan Nyantenji while Andres Hulfachor added 11 points, including 7 of 10 from the free throw line. But no one else had more than five points for the Panthers, who struggled at times against Bishop Guertin's zone defense.

"The zone, we know we might see it, but we didn’t prepare a lot for it," South coach Nate Mazerolle said. "It’s not as if we weren’t ready to go, it’s just we didn’t execute the right way. We have some basic fundamentals we talk about all the time, back to when you were 8 years old. Ball fakes and bounce passes. There were a couple of moments where we threw air passes against their length, which was counterintuitive."

It's not a defense the Cardinals use often, but against the Panthers, it was something Fisher felt he needed to try.

"We don’t use it all the time," he said. "Our go-to is still man-to-man (defense), but Nashua South is so good against man-to-man defense that I had to give it a try. We’ve been working on it."

South was able to get an early lead and went up 13-6 under a minute into the second quarter on a 3-pointer by Cody Rocheleau. But Bishop Guertin answered with an 18-0 run to go up 24-13 and took a 10-point lead into halftime.

The Panthers bounced back to start the second half, opening with a 14-4 run that started and ended with 3-pointers by Nyantenji, tying the game at 30 with 3:48 left in the third quarter.

Bishop Guertin went back in front on a basket by Sullivan, but back-to-back baskets by Rhett Medling and Jaden Murphy gave South a 34-32 lead.

"I think we were pressuring the ball a little bit better," Mazerolle said. "We rebounded better. We did, for a stint, stopped their penetration, and we got out and ran. We got a couple of wide-open layups and that spurs any run for any team."

But the lead didn't last long, as the Cardinals went on a 9-0 run that stretched into the fourth quarter for a 41-34 lead.

"We all knew Nashua South was going to go on a run," Fisher said. "They’re a very good basketball team, they’re very well-coached. I was very happy with the maturity and the composure we played with."

Bishop Guertin went up 46-40 on a putback by Mason Carroll with just over three minutes to play, but a pair of baskets by Nyantenji and a transition layup by Rocheleau tied the game with 1:29 remaining.

After getting across midcourt, the Cardinals took a timeout to set up a play. The shot was off the mark, but Kyle Baker was there to get the rebound and scored what proved to be the game-winning basket. Mullett followed by going 4 of 4 at the line to put the game away.