Nashua North girls basketball gets a lift from more than one player

The second half was less than a minute old Friday when the Nashua High School North girls basketball team looked like it might be in some trouble.

While battling for a rebound, Titans senior co-captain Danielle Upton got tangled up in a group of players, and as that bunch tumbled to the ground, she appeared to take the worst of it. Upton was slow to get up, had help leaving the court and didn't return, leaving North short a starter for what was shaping up to be a battle with Nashua South.

But instead of any one player stepping up to fill the void, Titans coach Christina Bean saw several players do just enough to help North hold on for a 50-49 victory.

There was Katie Carr leading the Titans defense and hitting a pair of free throws and a jump shot in the final minutes to keep North ahead. Freshman Kaitlyn Laurendi came in off the bench, after not playing in the first half, and hit a key 3-pointer when South was trying to take the lead.

Arianna Motivala delivered from the free throw line, including one with 12.6 seconds remaining that proved to be the difference.

"We were talking before the game, the last time we played South, only four of our starters scored the whole game," Bean said. "I said we can’t win games that way.

"Bianca (Gershgorin) came in and hit a couple of clutch shots at the beginning, and Kaitlyn (Laurendi) had some at the end. Ari (Motivala) is pretty knock-down with free throws and she’s pretty clutch at the end. Katie Carr played unreal defense. That’s how you win close games, when other people step up and fill in in those places."

And then there was Alana Choate, who had tied Carr with a team-high 12 points, and also kept South from advancing the ball in the final seconds and forcing the Panthers to take a timeout to try to set up a last-second shot.

"Alana stepped in and took that spot," Bean said. "She’s athletic as can be. She might not get the rebound, but she’s going to put pressure on you. You have to be ready for the rebound. We were there right on them and it took seven seconds off the clock. Those seconds were huge. That’s where you win a game right there."

The Titans have been figuring out how to do more of that as of late. North (5-5) started the year losing four of its first five games, but even those could be looked at as positives, as the losses were by an average of 6.3 points.

Since then, North has won three of four, and so far, only one of the Titans' games has been decided by more than 10 points. The schedule does get a lot tougher over the next few weeks, starting Tuesday when North travels to face Manchester Memorial (10-0).

After a week off, the Titans then head to Pinkerton (7-1) on Feb. 6 and host Bedford (10-0) on Feb. 13 with a road game against Keene in between.

"We need to keep it going," Bean said. "We had a slow start to the season and we kind of hit our stride when we played (South) the other night."