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# After win over Stevens, Souhegan boys basketball looking to keep momentum going (video)
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/after-win-over-stevens-souhegan-boys-basketball-looking-to-keep-momentum-going-video/
- Published: 2020-03-04T16:45:13.000Z
- Updated: 2020-03-04T16:45:13.000Z
- Description: AMHERST - The Souhegan High School boys basketball team wasted little time in Tuesday night's 64-28 win over Stevens, getting out to a comfortable lead in the first half and emptying the bench in the second. And within moments of the final buzzer sounding, the Sabers were already shifting their focu
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division II, boys basketball, slider, Souhegan, Stevens, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

AMHERST - The Souhegan High School boys basketball team wasted little time in Tuesday night's 64-28 win over Stevens, getting out to a comfortable lead in the first half and emptying the bench in the second.

And within moments of the final buzzer sounding, the Sabers were already shifting their focus to perhaps their biggest game of the season coming up Thursday night.

"We get a win, so that puts us at nine (wins), and everybody is watching the standings at this point," Souhegan coach Peter Pierce said. "That’s good.

"We’ve got a chance to play ConVal at home on Thursday, which is no small task. The last three games we’ve had with ConVal were two overtime losses and a buzzer-beater loss last year on senior night. We’d like to get one."

That 42-40 road loss to the Cougars on Feb. 11 was the final setback in a five-game losing skid in what has been a roller coaster of a season for Souhegan (9-8).

The Sabers started the year winning four of their first five games, but the one defeat was a 46-37 loss in which Manchester West held the ball for the entire third quarter. Souhegan has turned things around by winning five of its last seven games, but even within that stretch, there's been ups and downs, including a 48-31 loss at Oyster River on Feb. 28.

"We had a rough night at Oyster River because illness and injury, primarily," Pierce said. "There are off-the-court things that affect us because we’re not that deep. We play the majority of the game without three of our starters, after playing back-to-back earlier in the week. It was a perfect storm and it didn’t work out for us."

Bouncing back Tuesday against Stevens (3-14) was key for the Sabers, as they led 20-5 at the end of the first quarter and 33-11 at halftime.

Matt McCool led Souhegan with 17 points, despite playing only a few minutes at the start of the second half. Curtis Redd added eight points, while Zena Primmer also had eight markers off the bench. A dozen players had at least a point for the Sabers, something Pierce was happy to see.

"It was nice to get some end-of-the-bench kids time because they’ve spent, some of them years, not really playing," the coach said. "That’s always a great thing. We’ll take the win, but we’re going to have to gear up (in practice on Wednesday)."

While Redd returned to the lineup after missing the Oyster River game with illness, the Sabers were without starter Samuel Corbett against Stevens, and could be again on Thursday. For a team that's been a bit snake bitten since last summer - the Sabers lost senior point guard Trey Johnson for the year when he was hurt at a football camp in July - it's been one thing after another all year.

"It’s been tough," McCool said. "Only really having three or four seniors this year, losing Trey was huge because he would have been our starting point guard ... (it's) hurting us this year as far as experience."

A junior, and in his third season on varsity, McCool has had to step up into a leadership role and figure out how to do the things on the court that are best for the team.

"Initially, he struggled, and the whole team struggled, because of the inexperience," Pierce said. "They hadn’t played a lot together as a team. That takes time. Matt had to settle into his role and what he felt comfortable doing. Early on, he tried to do too much, but we’ve worked through that."

While McCool has been the team's leading scorer, the coaching staff spent time early in the year trying to show him that it's not all about putting up a lot of points.

"The biggest thing for me this year is knowing that I don’t have to score 30 (points) a night to win, but rather trusting my teammates," McCool said. "They’d rather I have 10 points, 10 assists, 10 rebounds instead of 35 points and a couple of assists and a couple of rebounds.

"There has been a lot of pressure and spotlight, but I’ve tried my best not to worry about that. I don’t get too high or too low with anything, and me teammates help a lot with that. They keep me grounded at practice, talking trash and not letting me get a big head."

The Sabers might get one collectively if they were to knock off ConVal in the regular-season finale, but it would also give them a boost in confidence heading into the playoffs.

"It definitely means a lot," McCool said. "Obviously the fact it’s the game before playoffs is huge. Just beating one of the top teams in the division would give us a huge confidence boost."

Souhegan hosts ConVal (16-1) at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.