Concord Christian girls basketball comes back in 4th quarter to beat Nashua South (video)

NASHUA - The Concord Christian Academy girls basketball team went into halftime Thursday night in an unfamiliar spot.

The undefeated Kingsmen not only trailed at the break for the first time this season, but were down seven points after Nashua South's Maggie Gallagher took advantage of a bad pass to close the half with a three-point play.

Concord Christian used the break wisely, and although South maintained the lead throughout the third quarter, the Kingsmen's adjustments took hold in the fourth, as they rolled in the final eight minutes to a 56-42 win over the Panthers in a Division I contest.

Brynn Vaillant had 17 points, including three 3-pointers, and Sophia Capsalis had all 16 of her points in the second half, to help lead Concord Christian (13-0). Emma Smith scored 12 of her 16 points in the first half and played the role of facilitator with the Panthers defense focused on her in the second half.

“This one was a bit of a rock fight,” Concord Christian coach Matt Smith said. “They played good, physical defense. They had a decent game plan and we came out a little timid with the physicality, but we fixed it at halftime. Once they got comfortable with it, we opened it up a little bit in the fourth quarter.”

South led 39-36 after a basket by Gallagher in the opening minute of the fourth quarter, but two quick baskets by Kate Smith and Emma Smith gave the Kingsmen their first lead since the opening quarter.

It also started Concord Christian on a 14-0 run, as the Panthers (9-3) went scoreless for more than five minutes. A 3-pointer by Nitzann Alkalay with 1:55 remaining were the only other points South would score.

“Our kids fought hard, but we felt like we could win this game,” South coach John Bourgeois said. “I think we got away from our principles a little bit when it mattered the most. They’re going on a run, hitting some shots, and I thought we got away from ourselves a little bit. But I’m really proud of the kids for fighting.”

Brooke Berger led the Panthers with 10 points and Gallagher finished with seven points while leading scorer Nicole De Jesus battled foul trouble most of the night. Lexi McGuire (two 3s) and Anya Challinger each had six points for South.

The Panthers had a 14-11 lead after one quarter and managed to keep the Kingsmen at bay for all of the second. But after Berger scored to give South a 26-22 lead with 15.1 seconds left in the half, South seemed to lose some steam when De Jesus picked up her third foul seven seconds later.

Concord Christian went to put the ball in play from midcourt, but Gallagher stepped in front of Emma Smith to steal the in-bounds pass and raced in for a layup while getting fouled. The junior added the free throw to give the Panthers a 29-22 lead at the break.

“I said to the girls, you’re going to have to listen to me now and realize that there’s a difference between coaching and criticism,” Matt Smith said. “If I don’t coach you and call out the fact that you’re not playing up to your level, then none of us are doing our jobs here. To their credit, they all received it very well.”

It was just what the Kingsmen needed to hear.

“We’ve never been down at half, so we were very frustrated with ourselves,” Emma Smith said. “Most of the things were just self-inflicted, so we just had to turn it around. The coaches were just honest with us and we came out and finally started playing our style.”

And with South focused on slowing down Emma Smith, Capsalis and Vaillant stepped up on offense in the second half, while the team defense held South to eight points over the game's final 12-plus minutes.

“Abby Lash played some great minutes for us,” Matt Smith said. “She was really good about helping (on defense), but if the ball got kicked to her side, closing out so that you couldn’t get up the shot. Brynn Vaillant did the exact same thing on the other side. They just did a really nice job of playing help and making sure that we weren’t leaving our bigs alone.”

After South went up 34-28 with 4:49 left in the third, Concord Christian closed the quarter by outscoring the Panthers 8-3 to make it a one-point game going into the fourth.

“I think in the fourth quarter, we started to get stubborn and didn’t play with each other,” Bourgeois said. “Then it turns into us just forcing things that just aren’t there. We’re going into traffic and trying to get a foul call that isn’t there. These are the games that we need for learning to help with those things for the big games and playoffs.”