Nashua North boys basketball comes back in fourth quarter to beat Bishop Guertin (video)

NASHUA - The Nashua High School North boys basketball team is at its best when it just does the work.

The Titans did that late in Tuesday night's game, putting their heads down and playing their brand of basketball.

Down seven points going into the fourth quarter, North held Bishop Guertin to seven points in the final eight minutes, got to the basket, and made its free throws, to pull out a 63-57 win over the Cardinals in a Division I game.

Jack Sullivan led the way, scoring 12 of his team-high 16 points in the first half, while Jayden Montgomery and Jack Peters each had 13 points and Trevor Labrecque was also in double figures with 10 for the Titans (9-1). Montgomery, Labrecque and Sullivan also combined to go 11 fo 13 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter to help North swing the game.

"We’re really just a bunch of dogs," Peters said. "We’re not great basketball players, we’re just really good athletes. We give it our all. When we do less complaining and more working, that’s just what happens.

"We don’t try to do too much, we don’t try to do too little, 110 percent all the time, and that’s just what happens."

Bishop Guertin (5-3) got 18 points from Matt Santosuosso, including two 3-pointers, while Luke Anderson hit four 3s and had 16 points, all in the first half. Javari Ellison added nine points for the Cardinals, but after they took a 48-41 lead with 1:36 left in the third quarter, Bishop Guertin was outscored 22-9 the rest of the way.

"They played harder at the end of the game than we played," Bishop Guertin coach John Fisher said. "We seemed to not want the ball and they all seemed to want the ball, offensively and defensively. It’s not that we didn’t play hard, we played hard. They had their way with us."

After a back-and-forth first half, which saw each team lead by as many as seven points, Bishop Guertin held a one-point lead at halftime following a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Anderson. That capped a 10-2 run by the Cardinals going into the half, as they led 35-34.

"I was not happy with the kids at halftime, with the way we closed out the half," North coach Steve Lane said. "You’ve got to give the other team credit, sometimes it’s just the other team playing well."

The Titans kept it close early in the third quarter, answering every shot the Cardinals would make, with Santosuosso and Peters trading 3s around the midway point to make it 42-41 Bishop Guertin.

The Cardinals outscored the Titans 8-2 over the final four minutes of the quarter to take a 50-43 lead into the final eight minutes. But any momentum Bishop Guertin had was ended by North's defense, which forced five turnovers in the first two minutes of the fourth.

At the other end, Sullivan hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to four, and then Montgomery was fouled after a steal, and the senior hit both free throws. A steal by Peters led to a second-chance opportunity for the senior and he scored to tie the game at 50, leading to a timeout by Bishop Guertin with 5:32 to play.

A basket by Bishop Guertin's Bobby Canaway with 2:24 remaining tied it at 54, but after the teams threw the ball around, Montgomery hit another pair of free throws to break the tie with 1:14 left. Another steal by the Titans led to a transition basket by Peters with 45 seconds left, giving North a 58-54 lead, and the Titans were able to put the game away at the line.

"You expect those kind of plays to be made by seniors," Lane said. "You want the ball in the hands of your best players, and you give yourself a chance to win. I felt like we just needed another stop, and then another stop, and they got it."