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# Merrimack, Nashua South girls basketball advance to Chick-Fil-A Holiday Tournament finale (video)
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/merrimack-nashua-south-girls-basketball-advance-to-chick-fil-a-holiday-tournament-finale/
- Published: 2019-12-28T12:00:17.000Z
- Updated: 2019-12-28T12:00:17.000Z
- Description: NASHUA - Holiday tournaments are usually a good time to try out a few new wrinkles or work on some things that need extra attention. For the Merrimack High School girls basketball team, that all went out the window in the first half Friday against Nashua North. After struggling with halfcourt offen
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Winter Sports, Alvirne, Chick-Fil-A Holiday Tournament, girls basketball, Merrimack, Nashua North, Nashua South, slider, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

NASHUA - Holiday tournaments are usually a good time to try out a few new wrinkles or work on some things that need extra attention.

For the Merrimack High School girls basketball team, that all went out the window in the first half Friday against Nashua North.

After struggling with halfcourt offense, the Tomahawks put on their press and turned the game around, forcing the Titans into turnovers that Merrimack turned into points on the way to a 49-30 win in the semifinals of the Chick-Fil-A Holiday Tournament at Nashua High School South.

Merrimack went on an 11-0 run to end the first half, wiping out a seven-point deficit, and stretched that run to 19-0 in the second second half, as the Tomahawks advanced to the tournament championship game for the second time in three years. Merrimack will face Nashua South, which beat Alvirne in the other semifinal, for the title at 3 p.m. Saturday at South.

Theresa Twardosky led the Tomahawks with 13 points while Samantha Page had 10 points and Shannon Sadhwani chipped in with nine.

But Merrimack fell behind 7-0 to open the game, and after responding with a 9-0 run, the Titans countered with a 9-0 run of their own to go up 16-9 early in the second quarter.

"We had to speed the game up," Twardosky said. "We came out with a press and it was all over. I didn’t think they were ready for it. They couldn’t stop it. They couldn’t get the ball up the floor, we started scoring."

It's the way the Tomahawks prefer to play, and coach Mike Soucy switched to it after they struggled getting into a rhythm slowing things down.

"We have to get into the rhythm of the game before things start to flow for us," the coach said. "These girls want play 84 or 94 feet. They want to press, they want to run, they want to do those things. I was trying to not allow them to do that (Friday), because we really need to get better at our halfcourt stuff. I had to let them go, and as soon as they did, that’s when things started to turn for us."

Merrimack ended the half on an 11-0 run to take a 20-16 lead into halftime and scored the first eight points of the second half to go up 28-16 and force North to take a timeout with 5:02 left in the quarter.

The Titans scored out of the break, but the Tomahawks got back-to-back baskets, and a few moments later, Twardosky hit a 3-pointer to make it 35-18 Merrimack. The Tomahawks led by double digits the rest of the way.

North was led by Aliana Mercado, who finished with 10 points, while Lillian Brooks added eight points.

### Nashua South 44, Alvirne 38

The Panthers looked like they were going to cruise to their third-straight final appearance at the tournament, taking a 20-point lead in the first half against the Broncos.

But after trailing 30-16 at halftime, Alvirne cut the lead to six points going into the fourth and trailed by just three points in the final minute of the game. South went 5 of 6 at the free throw line in the final 21.8 seconds to put the win away.

"The biggest thing we’re trying to work on is battling through that adversity, so any opportunity that we have is a good way to move forward," South John Bourgeois said. "Even if it’s a tournament, we’re just trying to get better every day. We’d rather do this than sit around all week long. This is a great opportunity for our girls to step up for moments that we see in games, and that’s what we did (Friday)."

Aryanna Murray led South with 12 points and Kirsten McIntire was also in double figures with 11 points, while Maya Rioux scored three of her seven points from the line in the final moments.

"It’s surreal," the junior said of shooting free throws at the end of the game. "It doesn’t matter, it could be a pickup game or the state championship. You get up to the line, it’s just you and the hoop. It’s the best feeling."

The Broncos got nine points from Hadara Ochieng while Grace Hodgdon added eight points.

South had a 28-8 lead late in the second quarter, but Alvirne outscored the Panthers 8-2 over the final moments of the half, and then the Broncos held South to one point for the first six-plus minutes of the third quarter.

A 3-pointer and a layup by Murray to open the fourth put the Panthers up 38-27, but Alvirne outscored South 9-1 over the next four-plus minutes to cut the lead to 39-36 with less than a minute to play. A couple of turnovers kept the Broncos from getting any closer and they were forced to send the Panthers to the line, where they made their free throws.

"That’s one thing we’ve been talking about, that we’re going to face adversity, we need to know how to deal with it," Rioux said. "That second half was a prime example of it. That Alvirne team is tough and they came out firey, wanting to win that game. We knew we had to step up and focus on the little things."