Londonderry boys basketball wraps up regular season with win over Nashua North (video)

NASHUA - For a little more than a quarter Friday night, the Londonderry High School boys basketball team was playing some of the worst defense its played all year.

The Lancers were getting beat in transition, weren't communicating or rotating properly on defense, and were getting outrebounded by Nashua North, and a minute into the second quarter, the Titans were on pace for the highest scoring game against Londonderry all season.

But then the Lancers flipped a switch defensively, holding North in check while the offense got going. Up by one late in the third quarter, Londonderry went on a quick run to get some breathing room and held off the Titans for a 50-41 win in the Division I finale for both teams.

Ethan May led the Lancers with 17 points, including a pair of 3-pointers, while Cole Keegan added 13 points and Jackson Cox was also in double figures with 11. Londonderry (14-4), which likely clinched the No. 4 seed in the D1 tournament, was able to get the win despite going just 12 of 24 at the free throw line.

In the end, it was the Lancers' defense that really determined what mattered.

"The confidence has been building and they have the will to win," Londonderry coach Nate Stanton said. "They know our defense is what is going to get us the win. We’re not a high-scoring team, so we’ve got to defend, and they started talking and started rotating the right way. We were in the right positions and that got us a couple of steals and was a momentum changer."

The biggest swing came in the third, when, after the Lancers had opened up a seven-point lead, the Titans (10-8) responded with a 6-0 run to get to within 29-28 with 2:49 left in the quarter.

But after a putback by Londonderry's James Buttafuoco, May came up with a steal at the other end and found Cox in transition for a basket. On North's next possession, Cox came up with the steal himself and went the distance, scoring to give the Lancers a 35-28 lead after a 6-0 rin in a span of 45 seconds.

"It was quick and it was over again," North coach Steve Lane said. "We turned it over, they laid it up, we turned it over, they laid it up, we turned it over again and they laid it up again.

"We were getting out in the break and in transition early on, and making some easy baskets, and then, all of a sudden, the ball stopped going in. They were physically tougher than we were (Friday). We turned it over far too many times to really have a chance to win the game."

North took the lead in the first quarter and went up 17-9 at the start of the second quarter, as Londonderry went scoreless for more than five minutes. But after the Titans went up 19-11 on a basket by Connor Dunning with 3:53 left in the half, they wouldn't score again, as the Lancers went on a 9-0 run to lead 20-19 at the break.

"I thought in the first quarter, they beat us down the court and advancing down the sideline," Stanton said. "We weren’t sprinting back and we weren’t communicating on defense. I like the way they adjusted after to that.

"In the first quarter, we were allowing two or three opportunities on each possession and not boxing out. We turned things around starting the last four minutes of the second quarter."

Up six points going into the fourth, May hit a 3-pointer and then a jumper on back-to-back possessions to give Londonderry a 41-30 lead. North was never really able to threaten again after that.

Curtis Harris led the Titans with 10 points despite fouling out with over three minutes left in the third quarter. Dunning and Nathan Kane each finished with eight points for North, which will likely be the No. 10 seed in the tournament.