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# Chick-fil-A Holiday Tournament: Merrimack boys basketball still knows how to win
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/chick-fil-holiday-tournament-merrimack-boys-basketball-still-knows-win/
- Published: 2017-01-03T15:00:25.000Z
- Updated: 2017-01-03T15:00:25.000Z
- Description: When Ian Cummings left the locker room at Nashua High School South at the end of Friday's Chick-fil-A Holiday Tournament, he was carrying quite a few things. In one hand was his trophy for earning all-tournament honors, and in the other, the Merrimack High School junior clung to the championship tro
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Winter Sports, boys basketball, Chick-Fil-A Holiday Tournament, Division I, Merrimack, NH High School Sports Insider, slider, Thornton Academy, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

When Ian Cummings left the locker room at Nashua High School South at the end of Friday's Chick-fil-A Holiday Tournament, he was carrying quite a few things.

In one hand was his trophy for earning all-tournament honors, and in the other, the Merrimack High School junior clung to the championship trophy the Tomahawks were taking home for the second straight year.

On his face was a big smile that grew wider when someone asked if he needed a hand.

Cummings had once again led the Merrimack boys basketball team in scoring, but this game was a little different. The Tomahawks had scored just 40 points against Thornton Academy - or just two more than the football team averaged in the fall - and Cummings had all of his 11 in the second quarter.

"I felt pretty good," he said of the win. "I just calmed myself. Because it was a championship game, I got a little nervous in the first quarter. Once I calmed down, started hitting shots, I just got more confident."

In the second half, that confidence meant something other than making shots. Once Merrimack got the lead early in the fourth quarter, the Tomahawks slowed the game down, got more deliberate in their offense, and forced Thornton to try to take the ball away.

It led to a half in which Merrimack outscored the Trojans 14-7, holding them without a point for the final 9:13 of the game.

"If people haven't figured out we can't score and that's the way we have to play, then we might be setting basketball back, but that's the way we've been for two years," Merrimack coach Tim Goodridge said. "That's what we have to do."

That might make Merrimack the best team in the state at winning without scoring.

The Tomahawks didn't need to do it in their first two games of the tournament, as they beat Milford and Nashua North. But against teams with plenty of skill, like Thornton and Spaudling, who Merrimack beat 43-34 on Dec. 23, the Tomahawks best bet is to slow things down and rely on their defense and rebounding.

But one thing that Goodridge didn't feel like he was able to do was find players who could expand Merrimack's rotation.

"What I would have liked to see more, I would have liked to use my bench more," he said. "I didn't feel confident enough. It's a Catch-22\. You come down here, you want to win the tournament, you want to make your team better, but then again, you can't hold a kid like Cummings back.

"You can't take a chance at losing a game like this because he works so hard at the game. I would have liked to get more kids involved. We need to get deeper. You need to be eight or nine deep, and right now, I'm pretty confident in seven. We've got to find a couple more players."

Merrimack did have two players who solidified their spot in the rotation for the time being in Alex Thornton and Jared Dyer.

Thornton had a couple of big baskets at the start of the championship game, when the Trojans were focused on taking away Cummings and Dan McKillop. Goodridge came away impressed with the way Dyer, a freshman, was able to make big free throws down the stretch against North and Thornton.

"The freshman stepped up and made two big free throws," Goodridge said after the win over North. "He made his while some other guys didn't. He's going to come along just fine."

Merrimack returns to its regular-season schedule Jan. 3 at Bedford.