Nashua North boys basketball reaches second straight Chick-Fil-A final with win over Alvirne

NASHUA - The Nashua High School North boys basketball team has been the highest scoring team at the Chick-Fil-A Holiday Tournament.

But Tuesday, it was the Titans' defense against Alvirne that had coach Steve Lane in a good mood after North's 59-43 win over the Broncos at Nashua South.

"The first 16 minutes, it’s as good as we’ve played defensively since I’ve been here as a coach," Lane said. "That’s as good as we’ve ever played. We took a few minutes off in the second half and got right back after it."

North returns to the championship game of the Chick-Fil-A tournament for the second year in a row, and third time in five years, where it will face Merrimack at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Alvirne will take on Nashua South, which had won four titles in a row, at 6 p.m. for third place.

Nathan Hale led North with 16 points and Alonzo Linton came off the bench to score 15 points, but Lane pointed to the defensive play of Sclyler Boykin and Jordan Buckmire, specifically against Alvirne's Dan Brown, as a key to the win.

After scoring 23 points, including 19 in the first half, against Goffstown on Monday, Brown had seven points - all but one of which came in the second half - in the loss.

"Between Sky and Jordan, they are such good on-the-ball defenders, and you teach them ball defend and help," Lane said. "But (Tuesday) was a little different because Danny (Brown) is a heck of a ball player.

"He’s athletic, he’s quick, he can jump, he can get to the rim. Those two guys are as good a on-the-ball defenders as we have. We wore him down a little and I think he was a little tired going into the fourth quarter."

Max Bonney-Liles led the Broncos with 14 points, but no one else was in double figures, as Alvirne fell behind by 10 points in the first quarter.

"I was disappointed in the way we came out in the first quarter and got behind," Alvirne coach Brian Lynch said. "We weren’t able to get stops. Anytime you go down big early against a good team like North, you’ve got your work cut out for you for the rest of the game."

North took a 34-18 lead into halftime, but Alvirne opened the third with a 10-4 run to cut the Titan lead to 38-28. The Titans answered with a 13-6 spurt to take a 51-34 lead with 5:29 left in the game.

"It was a total defensive effort and that’s what I’m trying to sell the kids on, that defense is going to keep you in ball games," Lane said. "It’s not going to win them all, but it’s going to keep you in every game, and they’re starting to listen."