Londonderry boys basketball bounces back in second half to beat Nashua South (video)

NASHUA - The Londonderry High School boys basketball team was on the verge of watching its season head into a tailspin.

After winning the first five games of the year, the Lancers had dropped three in a row, and trailed Nashua South by seven at halftime Tuesday night.

Nate Stanton asked his eight seniors, who were at the halfway point of their final season, how they wanted the rest of their high school careers to go, and in the second half, the Londonderry coach got his answer.

The Lancers outscored South 20-8 in the third quarter and made just enough free throws down the stretch to keep the Panthers at bay, snapping the three-game losing skid with a 55-51 win over South.

Jack Anderson scored 13 of his game-high 19 points in the second half, while Dakota Bertrand added 17 points, to bring Londonderry (6-3) from a nine-point deficit early in the third quarter.

"I have eight seniors and this game is 50 percent through our season," Stanton said. "I just asked them how do they want to go out. The way they came together and responded was outstanding. I didn’t have to say much because I think they want it. We have great leaders on the team and they brought themselves together more in the second half."

That effort started on defense, where the Lancers have excelled this season. Londonderry had allowed an average of 49.9 points going into the game, and no one has scored 60 on the Lancers this year, but at halftime, South led 29-22.

It could have been worse had Londonderry not hit a couple of second-chance 3-pointers in the first half.

"I think they had three 3s off offensive rebounds in the first half," South coach Nate Mazerolle said. "Those should be layups at the other end. They hung around.

"We knew what adjustments were coming in the third quarter. In fact, that’s what we prepared most for, and we just broke down in terms of our execution. We reverted back to old, bad habits. Anderson had a great third quarter and we didn’t defend the way we’d talked about, the way we did in the second quarter."

South (4-4) got 14 points from Clay Medling while Richie Mercado had 10 points and Alex Amigo added seven.

After a back-and-forth first quarter ended with the scored tied at 15, scoring was harder to come by for most of the second. The Panthers were able to get out in front 25-17, but in the final 70 seconds, the pace picked up, with each side getting a pair of baskets going into the half.

Baskets by Medling and Tyler Bernard to open the third quarter gave South its largest lead, 33-24, but Anderson came back with a 3 at the other end. That shot started Londonderry on a 13-2 run that gave the Lancers a 37-35 lead.

"They ran that matchup zone, which we knew they’ve been using and has been very effective," Mazerolle said. "I think they were just better at it (in the second half), they saw what we were trying to do against it, which we did well in the first half. They didn’t necessarily take it away, we just didn’t run it."

Cody Rocheleau tied it with two free throws for South with 1:04 left in the third, but another 3 by Anderson and a basket by Ethan May put Londonderry up 42-37 going into the fourth.

The lead stayed at one or two possessions throughout the quarter, and with 1:15 to play, South started sending Londonderry to the free throw line and the Lancers struggled to close out the win, going 4 of 11 from the line.

After a pair of misses at the line by Londonderry's Ryan Chisholm, Mercado hit a 3-pointer with 7.6 seconds left to get South within three points, 54-51. But Anderson made the second of two free throws to make it a four-point game with 6.3 seconds remaining to finish it out.

"If we could make foul shots, it would have been a little easier on me," Stanton said. "The way we came back in the second half and turned things around, I think it was huge for us. They really came together and got back to what we do well, and that’s our defense. We were able to get good looks in our transition offense."