Concord boys basketball uses defense to pick up win over Bishop Guertin (video)

NASHUA - Dave Chase has preached defense to the Concord High School boys basketball team from the first day he took over as the head coach last season.

So far this year, it seems like the Crimson Tide are buying into the message.

Concord held Bishop Guertin in check for long stretches Thursday night by clogging up the lane and forcing the Cardinals to shoot from the perimeter. And at the other end, the Tide did just enough offensively and made their free throws down the stretch for a 51-40 win over the Cardinals in Division I action.

Rylan Canabano led Concord (2-0) with 18 points, including 12 of 12 at the free throw line, as the Tide shot 21 of 26 at the line, compared to Bishop Guertin's 3-of-13 shooting night. Theodore Blodgett was also in double figures with 11 points and Walter Kalisz had nine as nine different players scored for Concord.

But it was the defense that led the way, as Concord got out to an 18-9 lead with 4:46 left in the first half. After the Cardinals went on a run to take the lead in the third quarter, the Tide answered with a 14-0 run to go up 40-28 going into the fourth.

"Defensively, that’s the biggest change for us from last year," Chase said. "The last two games, I thought we did a great job. We call it guarding our yard, not letting guys get into the paint. That was our plan (Thursday) and we took a couple of charges and I think we outrebounded them. When you do those two, protect the paint and outrebound, and we outshot them at the foul line, those were the keys to victory."

Tommy Fontanella led Bishop Guertin (0-1) with 11 points, including three 3-pointers, and Andrew Lussier also had three 3s for nine points, as nine of the Cardinals' 14 field goals were from behind the arc.

But early foul trouble kept Yannis Nyantengi and John Begley on the bench for most of the game and limited what Bishop Guertin could do inside.

"The foul trouble changes us tremendously," Bishop Guertin coach Matt Regan said. "When John and Yannis are on the bench, we really lose any inside threat. We become more perimeter-oriented, but we’ve got to do a better job of not picking up any (cheap fouls)."

The Cardinals didn't help themselves by starting 1 of 8 from the free throw line.

"In the first quarter, the ball wasn’t moving fast enough and we made some mistakes on the defensive end," Regan said. "We want to play quicker and we were fouling, the clock is stopping, and it just wasn’t conducive. I thought we played pretty well though offensively.

"We struggled from the foul line and at the start, I think, if those go in, the mindset changes. We were aggressive, we got to the foul line. If you go 8 for 10 instead of 1 for 10, you’re feeling much different about what’s going on."

Despite that, Bishop Guertin was able to cut Concord's lead to one, 22-21, at halftime thanks to a 12-4 run that included three 3-pointers. Fontanella then opened the second half with a 3 to give the Cardinals their first lead of the game.

The teams traded baskets and Bishop Guertin led 28-26 on a layup by Darrel Yepdo with 6:08 left in the quarter, but the Cardinals wouldn't score again until the fourth.

"I think we missed a relatively easy layup and compounded it with a defensive error," Regan said. "Instead of being tied, we’re down five. And the next possession, we missed a shot and then came down and made another error. Instead of being tied, we’re down seven, and we’ve got to be better than that."

Concord was able to take advantage, retaking the lead on a basket by Blodgett, part of the 14-0 run that put the Tide in control. Canabano helped put the game away from the free throw line down the stretch, as the Tide went 9 of 13 and scored all but two of their 11 points in the fourth quarter at the line.

"I thought we got a little lazy and we didn’t close out," Chase said. "I said you guys shoot the ball really well when no one is guarding you, so we’ve got to get out and get a hand in their face. We’ve got limit them to one shot, we’ve got to rebound. We got back into it when we saw we were down. We went on a nice run and I thought we had a few good spurts defensively, where we shut them down."