Nashua North boys basketball cranks up defense in second half to beat Bishop Guertin

NASHUA - The Nashua High School North boys basketball team had played well during the first half of Tuesday's game against Bishop Guertin.

But if the Titans were going to pull out the win, they knew they had to step it up on defense.

That's exactly what North did, holding the Cardinals without a field goal for the first nine-plus minutes of the second half on the way to a 58-48 win in a Division I game.

"We did a poor job of defensive rebounding in the first half, and we fixed that and got the defense going," North coach Steve Lane said. "We got key stops and we got runouts like we need to do. We need to get out in the open floor and run and make the shots that are available for us."

North outscored Bishop Guertin 18-3 in the third quarter and led by 16 points early in the fourth thanks to a defense that forced the Cardinals into tough shots they were unable to convert. That improved defensive rebounding led to fast-break points, with North's Alonzo Linton leading the way.

Linton finished with 28 points while Sky Boykin scored all of his nine points in the second half and Jordan Buckmire and Ryan Lynn each added eight for the Titans (8-7)

Mike Rinko scored 15 of his 19 points in the first half to lead the Cardinals (7-8) and Yannis Nyantengo was also in double figures with 11, but no one else had more than six for Bishop Guertin, which led 26-25 at halftime.

"We played hard for the most part, we just weren't doing a good enough job of being patient and waiting for the right opportunity," Bishop Guertin coach Matt Regan said. "I thought we just tried to score off one or two passes the whole game. It just wasn't very good.

"That's what we talked about at halftime. We made a lot of tough shots off one or two passes (in the first half), and you're not going to win basketball games doing that. The law of averages is going to get you at some point. It's been one of our issues all year."

The Cardinals' success in the first half made it a back-and-forth game for the first 16 minutes, as neither team led by more than four points. The game was tied nine times and the lead changed hands eight times in the opening half.

Two free throws by Patrick Donovan gave Bishop Guertin at one-point lead at halftime, and Nyantengo made a free throw to open the third to make it 27-25.

But Boykin answered at the other end, giving North the lead with a three-point play just seven seconds later, and three points from Linton made it 31-27. After Nyantengo made two more free throws, the Titans went on a 14-0 run to take a 45-29 lead early in the fourth.

"After halftime, we came out more competitive and got after it," Linton said. "We started crashing the boards, and that got us fast breaks, and that's what we like to do, get up the court.

"It was very important because that's our style, that's how we like to play. We like to run up the court and score and get back, try to get another fast break and keep doing it."

Bishop Guertin was able to get the lead down to nine points, thanks to a pair of 3s by Clay Crowell and Joe Hyatt, but North made enough of its free throws in the final minute to keep the Cardinals from getting closer.