Thornton Academy pulls away late to beat Nashua North in Chick-Fil-A Holiday Tournament boys basketball final (video)

NASHUA - For three-and-a-half quarters, the finale of the Chick-Fil-A Holiday Tournament was all anyone from the Nashua High School North boys basketball team could have asked to get.

A 3-pointer from the Titans' Joshua Lentz tied the game at 38 apiece, and North appeared poised for an epic finish against Thornton Academy.

But the Golden Trojans found ways to exploit their size advantage in the final moments, as they went on a 14-4 run to end the game and beat North 52-42 to win Thornton's first tournament title since 2010.

Payton Jones led Thornton with 18 points while Dylan Griffin came off the bench to add 15 points and William Chapman had eight, as the Trojans looked like they were going to pull away from North at halftime.

But after Thornton closed the first half on a 7-0 run to lead 24-17, the Titans opened the second half with three 3-pointers for the second game in a row to take a 28-26 lead. The teams traded the lead six times over the remainder of the quarter and stayed close until the final minutes.

"The boys competed for the whole four quarters and they had to (Saturday)," Thornton coach Bob Davies said. "I’m pretty impressed with them for that for a third straight day."

North got 15 points from Nathan Kane, including three 3-pointers, and Curtis Harris added 12 points, hitting two 3s, while Lentz was also in double figures with 10.

"There were a lot of positives that came out of this week for us," North coach Steve Lane said. "Confidence, the ability that we can play with some teams that are out of our league. I think it was a good tournament for us in that respect.

"Thornton is a very good. They have some size and they move the ball well. It looks like they’ve played together for quite some time. What it came down to, we’re trying to get stops and they got some great looks and we didn’t score."

Down the stretch, the Trojans went inside to the 6-4 Griffin and the 6-5 Chapman, while Jones also had a pair of baskets to put Thornton up 46-38 with 1:41 to play.

"The kids’ basketball IQs are pretty good, so it’s a credit to those guys," Davies said. "We knew what we were up against. That’s a well-coached team. We know it’s a four-quarter battle and our kids were up for it."

Both teams started slow, as North opened the scoring on a 3 by Kane more than two minutes into the game. Thornton didn't get its first points until 4:35 remained in the first quarter, but scored back-to-back baskets to go up 4-3.

North answered with a 7-0 run and led 12-6 early in the second quarter, but Thornton outscored the Titans 18-5 the rest of the way.

Thornton's Griffin and Anthony Bracamonte and North's Brenden Choate were named to the all-tournament team, as were Nashua South's Andres Hulfachor and Merrimack's Jared Dyer.