Win streak goes to 9 as Nashua North boys basketball beats Portsmouth

NASHUA - There may not be a hotter team heading into the postseason than the Nashua High School North boys basketball team.

Since losing four straight games to drop to 4-4 in mid-January, the Titans have been on a roll heading into a showdown Tuesday night at home against Portsmouth.

Thanks to a strong second half, where they outscored the Clippers 42-21, the Titans extended their win streak to nine games, beating Portsmouth 74-50.

The Titans had four players score in double-figures, led by junior Parth Miglani, who finished with 21 points while hitting four 3-pointers.

North (13-4) has had little trouble scoring all season, but during the win streak, the team improved in another two areas: defense and turnovers.

“We have to guard,” North coach Steve Lane said." When they decide to guard and get in passing lanes and get other teams out of control, that’s what we want. And if we take care of the ball, we have enough guys who can hit shots. That’s the two things that are the secret to us. There’s nothing special that we do.”

The Titans defense looked strong for the first 11 minutes of the game, taking a 29-12 lead with five minutes left in the second quarter.

The rest of the quarter belonged to Portsmouth (9-8). Coach Tyrese Gibbs relied on his bench to give the team a spark and the players responded by scoring 17 straight points to tie the game at 29.

“We fight. I was proud of our guys in the first half,” said Gibbs. “That was mostly our bench. We just can’t get all 10-13 guys to play all together at the same time.”

Aidan Thomas and Cote Bellaud each scored five points in the quarter off the bench to keep the Clippers in the game. Isaiah Reis led the team with 12 points.

Neither team gained an edge for most of the third quarter. The Titans led 44-43 with about two minutes left on the scoreboard.

That’s when the switch flipped for North.

After Miglani missed his second of two free throw attempts, Jaden Pena grabbed the offensive board and scored the put back while getting fouled; he would hit the ensuing free throw. He finished with 10 points on the night

In a matter of moments, North’s one-point lead turned to five. The Titans scored the final 11 points of the quarter to go up 55-43 heading into the final quarter.

A big reason for that run? Lane decided to throw 5-8 Luke Peters in the middle of Portsmouth’s zone defense.

“Luke is a better decision maker than others,” Lane said. “Third quarter we get the ball to him in the middle and he kicks out to Parth for 3, then to Alize (Roig-Cortes) for 3, dumps it down to Robbie (Rodriguez), then he hits a couple floaters.”

The Titans' defense also ramped up. Portsmouth did not score a point until three minutes into the fourth quarter and it took another two minutes to hit a shot from the field.

North’s full court press crushed Portsmouth’s rhythm and the Titans got plenty of fast break opportunities, including a thunderous dunk by Rodriguez, raising his point total to 14, to push the score to 68-48 with under three minutes left.

It’s a play like that where Lane can only smile and enjoy the show.

“The way we play is fun to watch," the coach said. "I tell them ‘If you guard and share the basketball you are a really fun team to watch. It won’t guarantee that you’ll win, but you guys are really fun to watch.’”

The Titans have come a long way since their 55-54 loss at home versus Keene, which isn’t lost on the players.

“I think coming with a new team, we were just learning how to play with each other,” said Miglani. “But it’s just starting to click. We knew each other for a long time, but now we are playing together and learning to trust each other.”