Nashua North girls basketball hangs on to beat Winnacunnet

NASHUA - Christina Collins knew her Nashua High School North girls basketball team couldn't afford to get into an early hole Tuesday night against Winnacunnet.

Not only did the Titans hang with the Warriors early, they held the lead for most of the first quarter, trailed by one at halftime and did just enough down the stretch to beat Winnacunnet 43-41 in Division I action.

North scored the final four points of the game, as the Titans overcame a 7-2 run by the Warriors that gave them a 41-39 lead with 3:49 left to play, along with two missed free throws in the final 10 seconds.

"This was the first game that they've played together," Collins said. "They all stepped up.

We talked about, before the game, they’re a big team and they’re a well-coached team, and we had to be right there with them from the beginning. They put bodies on them, they looked for those shots. We had a couple of runs in the beginning and that was huge."

Isabel Dunning led North (2-3 in D1) with 17 points while Arianna Motivala had nine points and five steals. Danielle Upton also had seven points and three steals, as Winnacunnet turned the ball over 18 times.

"We couldn't get the momentum going in our direction because of our turnovers," Winnacunnet coach Cassie Turcotte said. "It was a physical game and there were constant breaks in momentum.

"North did a good job of reading their open players, they found them every single time, and we were not doing a great job of adapting. When they're hitting the same player over and over again, who is open, why are we not adapting and that’s our issue."

Three players scored in double figures for the Warriors, with Kaya Cadagan leading the way with 11 points. Danielle Boucher and Emily Britton added 10 points a piece for Winnacunnet, as neither team led by more than six points and the lead changed nine times.

Winnacunnet took an early 6-2 lead, but North scored the next nine points to take its largest lead of the game, 11-6. The Warriors answered with an 11-2 run of their own to go up 19-13, their biggest lead of the night, with 4:23 left in the first half.

North started to find ways to beat Winnacunnet's full-court pressure and retook the lead with a 9-2 run before Leah Orzechowski ended the half with two free throws to put the Warriors up 23-22.

"In our press, we were not doing a good job of anticipating," Turcotte said. "It's really frustrating to watch from the sideline because you can see exactly where they're going to be passing the ball, but we're two steps behind every single one. We're playing reactionary instead of playing anticipatory."

Neither team would lead by more than three points the rest of the way, as North retook the lead, 30-27, on a jump shot by Motivala. But Cadagan answered for Winnacunnet, and after a turnover by the Titans, Britton gave the Warriors a 32-30 lead with a 3-pointer.

That lead was short-lived, as Upton responded with a 3 of her own to put North in front 33-32 going into the fourth.

The Titans held onto the lead for most of the fourth quarter, going up three, 39-36, on a basket by Dunning, but Winnacunnet put together a 5-0 run, taking a two-point lead on a layup by Boucher with 3:49 to go.

But a three-point play by Motivala put North up one, 42-41, and the sophomore made one of two free throws with 1:27 remaining to make it a two-point game.

Winnacunnet had a couple of opportunities to tie or go ahead, but couldn't hang on to the ball and was forced to foul. Although North twice missed the front end of a one-and-one, the Titans were able to get the win.

"We can win a close game and we can play with those better programs in the league," Collins said. "We're not there right now, but if we keep this momentum and the motivation, we can be there, too. That's going to be a big key to it."