Merrimack boys basketball comes back to grab win over Manchester Central (video)

MERRIMACK - Things got pretty sticky for the Merrimack High School boys basketball team in the second quarter against Manchester Central.

The Tomahawks spent halftime trying to figure out how to get unstuck against the Little Green's zone defense, and while it took a while, by the start of the fourth quarter, they'd broken free.

Merrimack used a press to create turnovers and score in transition to get itself back into the game, and once the Tomahawks got rolling, they were able to hold off Central for a 56-54 win in a Division I game Friday night.

After trailing by as many as nine points in the third quarter, Merrimack (4-1) took control of the game with a 16-2 run over the end of the third and most of the fourth quarter. Central (0-5) went almost four minutes in the final quarter without scoring to trail by as many as six points down the stretch.

“The whole week we’ve been practicing for the 1-3-1 (zone) but sometimes the ball sticks,” Merrimack coach Austin Denton said. “We didn’t attack it like we did in practice. We had to turn them over and we had to get those as layups. We really struggled with (the zone) and we weren’t hitting as many shots as we normally do. The press really helped us.”

Nate Johnson led the Tomahawks with 20 points, all on 2-point field goals, while Brody Towle also finished with 20 points, including all three of the team's 3-pointers.

Central got 21 points, including three 3s, from Chris Gumaa while Glodie Hamisi came off the bench to score 15 points. But the Little Green had 14 turnovers in the second half, 10 of which came in the third quarter.

“I was telling them it’s the next play,” Central coach Tim Lambrou, Jr., said. “We can’t change the play that happened before. You can’t dwell on it. We all make mistakes. I make mistakes. Dwelling on it is going to affect our present, which is going to be a negative for our future. Just keep playing.”

The Little Green did, despite falling behind 48-42 on a putback by the Tomahawks' Connor Page with 3:45 remaining. Page was fouled on the play, but couldn't complete the three-point play, and Central broke its scoreless drought at the other end.

Johnson scored and had a chance for a three-point play that would have again given Merrimack it's biggest lead, but missed the free throw, one of four and-1s the Tomahawks failed to convert in the second half.

Overall, Merrimack was just 5 of 14 from the line in the final two quarters, including 4 of 11 in the fourth.

That left the door open for Central to cut the lead in half, making it a three-point game, 50-47, with 1:41 remaining. A 3-pointer by Gumma with about 30 seconds remaining got the Little Green within two, 54-52, but a free throw each from Towle and Chris Valluzzi kept the Tomahawks far enough in front to hang on to the win.

“We’re not going to win any free throw contests,” Denton said. “In the second half, we mucked it up a little bit and we played a lot tougher. The first half, I thought we let them do whatever they wanted. We were kind of going through the motions.”

The teams played a back-and-forth first quarter, with the lead changing hands five times before Merrimack took a 15-14 lead into the second.

But Central opened the quarter by outscoring Merrimack 10-3 to take a six-point lead, and then pushed the lead up to 10 points late in the half. The Tomahawks got a late basket from Johnson to make it 30-22 Little Green at the break.

“The guys play hard,” Lambrou said. “They want to win, they want to succeed and turn this program around. Games like this are just going to make us better as the season goes along.”