Nashua South learns quickly to win Chick-fil-A basketball title for second-straight year

NASHUA - The Nashua High School South boys basketball team might have been on vacation, but that didn't stop the Panthers from learning a quick lesson Saturday.

South took the court at noon to face Souhegan in the semifinals of the Chick-fil-A Holiday Tournament, and with a little more than five minutes to play, the Panthers led by nine points.

But then the Panthers turned the ball over, and Souhegan's Brian Dworkin hit two free throws. South turned the ball over again and Dworkin hit a layup. Another South turnover led to another Souhegan layup, this time from Tyler Ford.

The Panthers turned the ball over five times in a little more than three minutes, helping Souhegan go on a 15-7 run and make it a one-point game. The teams then traded baskets, with the Sabers taking a 58-57 lead on a layup by Brandon Len with eight seconds left.

South took a timeout and Tim Preston drove the length of the court, but his layup was blocked out of bounds by AJ Hayes. There was still eight-tenths of a seconds on the clock and South coach Nate Mazerolle tried to draw up a play.

"It was supposed to be a lob to Jack (Preston)," Mazerolle said of the final play. "With 0.8, I figured you wouldn't have much time. But I said to Trevor (Knight), last thing, if it's not there, find Tim (Preston) at the free throw line. He was nowhere near the free throw line, but he made it. I hate to use another cliche, but better to be lucky than good."

Mazerolle wanted Knight to find Jack Preston under the basket. Instead, the ball went to Tim Preston, well behind the 3-point line and the junior guard drilled a 3 to give the Panthers a 60-58 win.

"We survived with a miraculous shot at the end," Mazerolle said after the game. "We struggled against their zone and the pressure hurt us in the fourth quarter. When we have a nine-point lead with four minutes to go, we shouldn't be missing free throws and turning the ball over.  It was the perfect game for us because we were starting to think that we're better than we are. We were exploited, but it happened in a win."

The win meant the Panthers had to come back just a few hours later to play in the tournament's championship game. When South took the court against Thornton Academy,  the players knew what they had to do different.

"I'm very proud of my guys," Mazerolle said. "I'm more pleased with the effort and execution from this second game. I wasn't pleased with that from the first game. We hit lulls and it was lackadaisical at times. The second game, we were much better. A lot of fundamentally sound things, and a much better job this go-round."

South broke open a close game late in the first half and ran away with the title in the second, beating the Trojans 64-46 to win a second-straight Chick-fil-A title.

"They responded to what I asked them to do after the first," Mazerolle said. "There were too many glaring mistakes, too many things that we work on all the time that we didn't execute. In a span of five or six hours, when they heard about it again before the game, I was pleased that they responded and did what I asked them to do. If we do that, we can be pretty good."

South got 18 points from Tim Preston in the final and Jack Preston had 12 points, giving him an average of 16 for the tournament. Both were named to the all-tournament team, along with Thornton's Jeff Gelinas and Quinn Richardson-Newton.

But the Panthers also got a big game off the bench from Cam Joyal, who hit four 3-pointers against Thornton. The Panthers also got quality minutes from Nick Penkala, who started in place of the injured David Dunham.

"We shot very well," Mazerolle said of the final. "Cam Joyal has been a diamond in the rough so far. Coming into the season, I kept telling people I thought we had six guys and we weren't deep. He has been a huge, pleasant surprise. He can play and he can certainly shoot. Vinnie (Ortolano) had good shooting in the first game.

"Any time you have someone you can put in the corner, it will alleviate pressure in the middle. Then we started making very good interior passing against the zone and that's a result of the good shooting."

South returns to its Division I schedule on Friday when it hosts Merrimack.