Gallagher's run put Nashua South girls basketball in position to win

The Nashua High School South girls basketball team completed its comeback Monday night thanks to a barrage of 3-pointers in the final two minutes.

But the fourth-seeded Panthers were in position to rally for the 43-41 win over No. 13 Pinkerton Academy thanks to they play of Maggie Gallagher in the third quarter.

With the Astros extending their zone a little more after the Panthers had hit four 3-pointers in the first half, Gallagher was able to find an opening in the middle of Pinkerton's defense, and her teammates were able to get consistently get her the ball.

“This quarter determines the pace of the game and who stays on top,” the junior said of her mindset at halftime. “I had to go in and I had to do my best. (The shots) weren’t falling at first, but I got one in, and then I got into the groove of it.”

Gallagher scored all 12 of her points in the third quarter, with all of them coming in the paint, and accounted for all of South's points in the frame. Most of them came with at least one defender on her back, and the final basket might have been the best.

With time winding down in the third, South's Lexi McGuire tried to send a bounce past to Gallagher near the free throw line, but Pinkerton's Brooke Benz stepped in to steal the pass. But as she tried to dribble from her left to her right hand, Gallagher reached in to take the ball back.

She then turned and drove to the basket for the layup.

“Maggie was an absolute beast (Monday),” South coach John Bourgeois said. “That was unbelievable. We have people that are out right now. Our rotations are shorter. She was gassed, and she just took it, and played tough, and she was the absolute X-factor.”

It all came after picking up three fouls in the first half, which was how many Gallagher would have at the end of the game.

“She was known for being in foul trouble,” Bourgeois said. “She’s fixed that problem and I’m so proud of her for impacting the game like we knew that she was going to when she first walked in here.”

Pinkerton made the adjustments it needed to during the quarter break and held South without a point for almost seven minutes while building up a 41-34 lead. Bourgeois took a timeout with 2:06 remaining and the Panthers were able to turn things around after that.

“Once we got an in-and-out game going, I left like our group made them have to decide what they wanted to guard,” Gallagher said. “They ended up guarding the middle a little bit more, so our corner shots ended up being wide open.”

It started with a 3 by McGuire right out of the timeout, and after the teams traded fouls, Nicole De Jesus hit a 3 to make it a one-point game with just over a minute remaining.

The Astros ended up with the ball with under 30 seconds remaining, with South still with fouls to give, the Panthers were forced to do so twice. That took about 13 seconds off the clock before Taya Brown went to the line for Pinkerton.

But the junior missed both, and Gallagher took off with the rebound, getting the ball down the floor before the Astros could get back. The ball eventually ended up in the hands of Addie Borden, who buried the game-winning 3 with 7.3 seconds to go.

The jubilation for South turned somber, though, when Borden appeared to injury her knee as the team celebrated her winning basket.

“Once Addie got the ball, she let go of it, I knew it was in right away,” Gallagher said. “We’ve just got to keep our spirits up. We can’t let her see if we’re sad (for Borden). She won the game for us.”

And because of that, the Panthers will host another playoff game, this time in the D1 quarterfinals against No. 5 Exeter. The game was pushed back to 6 p.m. Friday due to expected bad weather Thursday evening.