MANCHESTER, NH – Hours prior to jumping on the bus from Nashua to Manchester Central High School for a Tuesday clash in the queen city, Nashua South head boys basketball coach Nate Mazerolle was asked about the quality of his team’s opponent that night.
“I said, ‘they haven’t won a game and I’m scared to death,'” said Mazerolle. “They are good. Sudi (Lett) does a fantastic job. They run their sets well. They can shoot it, holy smokes, they defend. You know those traps, we have good guards, and they were taking it from us. I’m glad we got them out of the way now because they’re only going to get better as the year goes on.”
Though Mazerolle’s team was able to escape with a 78-65 win Tuesday night, the Little Green didn’t make it easy.
Led by 11 of Jason Gasana’s game-high 23 points in the second quarter, the Little Green were able to overcome an early deficit to take a 37-31 lead into the locker room at halftime.
“Jason Gasana is a player. Let’s start with that,” said Mazerolle. “He is fun to watch, unless you’re coaching against him, and he really took over that last two minutes of that second quarter and gave them the lead. They dominated us on the glass in the first half, especially in the second quarter.”
The second half was a different story, however.
South’s Josh Caruso, Alize Roig-Cortes and Denis Wainaina took over the scoring, leading the Purple Panthers with 11, 12 and 8 points, respectively, in the last two quarters, while the latter limited Gasana inside and pulled down a double-digit total in rebounds.
The setback was fifth time this season the Little Green fell in a tight contest to a quality foe.
“We’ve got to turn it into wins,” said Lett. “That’s pretty much it, and that was my message to the team, we’ve got to turn it into wins.
“I don’t know if it’s fatigue or what … but it’s hard to keep the kids spirts up, keep my spirits up without that ‘W’,” he added. “We’re going to keep chopping wood. That’s just the way we do it.”
The Little Green now have a week of practice to regroup and position themselves for that first springboard victory next Tuesday when they host 2-4 Keene at 6:30 p.m.
Central is then scheduled to make the short cross-city trek to Manchester Memorial for a 6:30 tipoff against the 4-2 Crusaders on Friday, Jan. 20.
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