Merrimack girls basketball knocks off Nashua South to win Chick-Fil-A Holiday Tournament title (video)

NASHUA - The Merrimack High School girls basketball team came into this season wanting to make a statement.

On Friday, Sabrina Johnson helped the Tomahawks make a loud one.

Johnson scored a game-high 24 points as Merrimack overcame an early deficit against Nashua South and pulled off a 47-35 win over the Panthers to win the Chick-Fil-A Holiday Basketball Tournament championship at South.

Down 7-0 just two minutes into the game, and still trailing by that amount late in the first quarter, Johnson had 13 points in the first half to get the Tomahawks a 28-24 lead at halftime. And after South tied the game at 30 early in the third quarter, scored back-to-back baskets, as Merrimack outscored the Panthers 17-5 the rest of the way.

"I feel like I’ve been working really hard on finishing everything," Johnson said. "I didn’t realize I’d scored so many points. People keep finding me and I’m right there, so I give my teammates kudos. A lot of them gave me a lot of assists."

Jolie Jacoby, Sam Page and Sara Wozniak had five points apiece for Merrimack, which scored the game's final 10 points after South made it a two-point game with 5:21 to play.

While the Tomahawks had used a much more balanced scoring attack in their first two tournament games, Merrimack coach Courtney Cheetham knows that her seniors, like Johnson, are capable of turning in that kind of performance if needed.

"When one player comes off the bench, they pick up the next one and it keeps flowing," Cheetham said. "It’s exactly what we need.

"Sabrina is the kind of kid who sometimes is going to score you 10 points, sometimes is going to score you 14, sometimes she’ll score you four, but she is never going to let them get too many points. We have to have her out there because she causes so much chaos. She has a lot of experience, so that leadership role comes into play. She knows what to do."

That included when South came out and immediately got a 3-pointer from Aryanna Murray, and after a Merrimack turnover, back-to-back baskets by Jasmine Sylvester and Kirsten McIntire to go up 7-0 just 2:03 into the game. Cheetham called a timeout and Johnson scored out of the break to get Merrimack on the board.

"They’re making a lot of shots now, they’re going to miss eventually, so just keep doing what we’re doing," Cheetham said of what she told the team in the timeout. "We’re doing the right things defensively, we’re putting pressure on the right people, they’re just hitting big shots."

South still led 14-7 when Johnson scored and was fouled. She missed the free throw, but the Tomahawks got the rebound, and Johnson got another basket to cut the lead to 14-11. A putback by Abby Yuan and a 3-pointer from Theresa Twardosky gave Merrimack its first lead, 16-14, and the Tomahawks led 19-14 at the end of the first.

But the Panthers were able to answer, opening the second quarter with an 8-1 run that included two baskets by Julianna Martin to go up 22-20. With the game tied at 24, Johnson scored on a putback and added two free throws to give the Tomahawks a four-point lead at the break.

McIntire, who had a team-high 10 points for South, put in a pair of baskets to open the third and help the Panthers tie the game at 30. Merrimack answered with a 7-0 run, getting two baskets by Johnson and a 3 from Wosniak to go up 37-30, but South scored the next five points to get within two before the Tomahawks put the game away.

South also got seven points from Murray and six each from Sylvester, Martin and Amber Hedquist.

"For us, we’ve been saying we want to make a statement," Johnson said. "All year, we’ve been like ‘let’s make a statement’ because we’ve always been underestimated. Just coming out and winning this it proves we’re going to compete."

Johnson, Yuan and Hedquist were named to the all-tournament team, along with Kelly Walsh from Goffstown and Emma Rousseau from Campbell.