Nashua South girls basketball rallies late to beat Pinkerton in D1 prelims (video)

NASHUA - One thing the Nashua High School South girls basketball team has had to learn this season is how to win close games.

The Panthers couldn't have done that much better Monday night.

Down seven points with just over two minutes remaining, No. 4 South ended the game with a 9-0 run, including the game-winning 3-pointer from Addie Borden with 7.3 seconds left, to beat No. 13 Pinkerton 43-41 in the Division I preliminary round.

It was the Panthers first non-open tournament home playoff game in exactly 20 years, and they'll get to host another in the quarterfinals at 6 p.m. Thursday, when No. 5 Exeter visits.

“That was the best 13-seed ever,” South coach John Bourgeois said. “That is not an easy win and at times it didn’t look like it was going to be our win. I’m proud of the girls for stepping up and overcoming.”

It was a bittersweet win, too, for the Panthers, as the celebration afterward was cut short when it appeared Borden was hurt in the postgame revelry. Bourgeois was trying to be optimistic, but the senior had to be helped off the court after the game.

“We’re just at this point hoping for the best,” Bourgeois said. “That was a huge moment for Addie hitting that big shot because it hasn’t always been an easy road for her, including injuries. For her to hit that, I couldn’t be more proud.”

Borden ended up with eight points, while Maggie Gallagher and Lexi McGuire (four 3-pointers) each led South (16-3) with 12 points. Nicole De Jesus added nine points, including a 3 down the stretch to get the Panthers within one.

Taya Brown scored 10 of her 13 points in the second half to lead Pinkerton (9-10) while Cara Mahn finished with 12 points and Brooke Benz scored eight, as the senior will go on to play at Southern New Hampshire University.

The game was also the final one for Pinkerton coach Lani Buskey, who told her team earlier this season that it would be her last one leading the Astros.

“I’m proud of my girls,” Buskey said. “We’re the 13^th seed. They just worked their butts off for me. If you saw us at the beginning, and you saw us grow, the adjustments we made, this is a team that can make those adjustments now. I don’t who is at the helm next year, but I think this is a crew that, I think whoever gets them is a lucky coach.”

The teams played a close game in the regular season, with South needing some help from Pinkerton to tie the game in regulation before winning 58-53 in overtime.

“We’ve come a long way,” Bourgeois said. “There were so many games this year that helped us learn how to win close games when we’re down, or close games when we’re up. We’re finding a way to finish and we talked about this for a long time, especially this past week, on how to close out things when it’s not going your way.”

In the fourth quarter, it wasn't for South. After taking a 32-25 lead over Pinkerton with 2:43 left in the third quarter, the Astros outscored the Panthers 16-2 over the next eight-plus minutes.

Gallagher accounted for all of South's points in the third quarter, and scored all of her points in the frame, but after her last basket with just under a minute to go until the fourth, the Panthers wouldn't score again for more than six minutes.

Brown scored to give Pinkerton its largest lead, 41-34, with 2:06 left and Bourgeois took a timeout. McGuire ended South's drought with a 3 out of the break to cut the lead to four.

De Jesus added another 3 following an offensive foul on Benz to get the Panthers within one in the final 90 seconds. After the teams traded empty possessions, South was forced to start fouling, eventually putting Brown at the line for a pair of free throws with 16.6 seconds left.

The junior missed both and the Panthers controlled the rebound, with Gallagher bringing the ball down before passing it to Nitzann Alkalay.

Alkalay found Borden open on the wing and the senior buried the shot. The rotation on the ball caused it to bounce away from the baseline, and by the time the Astros got the ball in, the clock had almost run out and Mahn's three-quarter court heave was well short.

For South, it's the first playoff win in a non-open tournament since 2009, when the Panthers upset Merrimack on the road in the opening round. The last home game, and win, came on March 2, 2006, in a preliminary-round game against Winnacunnet.

After going 20 years without a home playoff game, South will now have two in four days. The Panthers will take on an Exeter team they haven't played in over two years, and haven't beaten since 2018.

“It’s an interesting one, but I think we were so focused on (Monday), we didn’t want to even think about (the quarterfinals),” Bourgeois said. “We’re proud that we have that opportunity.”