Merrimack boys basketball takes care of business against Nashua North

MERRIMACK - The Merrimack High School boys basketball team knew what it had to do to keep its Division I playoff hopes alive.

The Tomahawks took care of their end and now it's time for them to wait.

Needing a win to have a shot at extending the season, Merrimack pulled away in the third quarter and held off Nashua North for a 76-63 win Tuesday.

Once the game was done, all eyes turned toward the seacoast, where Winnacunnet will host Bishop Guertin Tuesday night. If the Cardinals win, the Tomahawks will clinch the final playoff spot in D1. If the Warriors win, then Merrimack's season is done.

“The kids came out and responded, (and) we’re in for another game, hopefully,” Merrimack coach Austin Denton said. “We weren’t playing good basketball in the first half. We were kind of just turning it over. In the second half, we just came out and kind of beat them up physically and mentally.”

Merrimack (7-11) got all but five points from its seniors, with four of them finishing in double figures. Brody Towle led the way with 18 points, including a pair of 3-pointers, while Nate Johnson had 17 points, and Cayden Dine and Owen Ponder added 13 points a piece.

Josh Sullivan led North (6-12) with 26 points, including 19 in the first half and all four of his 3-pointers. Cameron Borges added 16 points, shooting 7 of 8 at the free throw line, and Andre Kargbo also had 10 points.

“We knew we could compete and we did,” Nashua North coach Kyle Tave said. “We hung around, but then when it gets to double digits, that’s when you kind of start looking at the scoreboard a little bit. We did the things we wanted to do.

“We really needed to be able to step up defensively and get a couple of back-to-back stops.”

Sullivan gave North momentum to end the first quarter, as he hit a buzzer-beating 3 to put the Titans up 20-17 after one. The turned that into a 30-22 lead midway through the second quarter, when Merrimack took a timeout with 4:23 left in the first half.

Although the Tomahawks started to pick things up after the timeout, it looked like they were going into halftime down one, when Chris Valluzzi (eight points, two 3s) hit a 3-pointer in the final seconds to give Merrimack a 35-33 lead at the half.

That momentum carried over for the Tomahawks, as they outscored North 9-2 to open the second half and force the Titans to take a timeout just 1:50 into the half. Merrimack led 44-35, having outscored North 22-5 over the previous eight minutes.

The Titans were able to get the lead back down to five points late in the third quarter, but the Tomahawks got their advantage back up to 10 points, 55-45, going into the fourth and kept the lead at double digits the rest of the way.

“They like to get up and down the floor, and I knew that we could get them in transition,” Denton said. “We get it, we want to push it, try to get easy layups. If you miss those layups, they’re going to get out and run.

“I thought we did a good job of that in the second half. We got some layups that were kind of wide open for us.”

For North, it's the second year in a row without a playoff berth, but with a young team and a first-year head coach, the feeling was different as this season came to an end.

“The nice thing is, even though it wasn’t a playoff game, it was still a playoff game, so it meant something,” Tave said. “For these guys to play Game 18, where it means something, hopefully they got a taste of that and they know what it’s like now. I know some of these younger guys are certainly going to be ready to go in the offseason.”