NASHUA, NH – The Bishop Guertin boys basketball team may only have one senior, but the Cardinals proved once again Tuesday they can fly with some of the more seasoned teams in the state.
Hosting Manchester Memorial High School, BG earned a 72-70 win in dramatic fashion to move ahead of the Crusaders in the Division-I standings.
“I thought the kids executed well. We had a great week at practice and, you know, this was a big game,” said BG head coach Wil Horne. “You know, 6-5, 6-6 team, we’re both kind of looking at seeding and where we can fall, and we knew we needed this one, and the kids took the fourth quarter like we knew we needed to, so it was great.”
With the win, BG (7-5) moved ahead of Memorial (6-6) in the Division-I standings.
After a tight first half that saw Memorial hold onto a 36-34 advantage at halftime, the teams went back and forth in in the third quarter, with BG closing with a 9-4 run to take a 55-51 lead into the final frame.
There, they extended their lead to 66-60 with 3:30 left in the contest prompting Memorial coach Danny Bryson to take a timeout.
Memorial came back to the court composed, scored quickly and soon tied the contest at 70 with one minute remaining.
A missed layup in the closing seconds, however, led to Bishop Guertin scoring on the counter attack at the other end of the court to seal the game.
“They’re an athletic team. I thought we matched up well, and they’re at home. You know, we’ve had a problem playing on the road this year, so it’s a combination of both,” said Bryson of his 6-6 squad, which currently holds a 1-5 road record. “It’s D-I, so it’s really any-given-night, so just yourself in the playoffs and then anything can happen right now.”
Led by 25 points from Connor McGowen, Bishop Guertin moved up to 10th in the D-I standings, a half a game out from a coveted top-eight seed, which carries at least one home playoff game.
“We set that out as a goal for our team at the beginning of the year, so it’s definitely something we haven’t taken away from our mindset,” said Horne. “We want to be home, we love our gym, we know the type of crowd we can get, we love the home comforts it can bring, so we’re trying to get our boys home and our one senior a home playoff game here, for sure.”
Indeed, Matt Chau is the lone senior on this year’s BG squad, but despite the relative lack of experience, Horne said his players have a win-now mentality.
“We’re Bishop Guertin, so there’s always the pressure to want to win here and the drive to want to win here,” he said. “So I don’t think the kids are looking forward to next year as much as the games we have in front of us this year, but it’s definitely something we’re looking forward to as a coaching staff.”
Bishop Guertin next plays at 6-6 Goffstown on Friday at 6:30 p.m. before hosting last year’s D-I runner-up, Nashua North (3-10), Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m.
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