Cavaliers making the best of early challenges

It's not a start that any high school basketball team would want, and for the Hollis/Brookline boys, it doesn't get any easier.

The Cavaliers just hope that as they get their feet wet, the results get a little better.

H/B opened the season with games against Coe-Brown, Milford and Hanover. As the Cavs break from their Division II schedule, they are staring at an 0-3 record after falling to Hanover on Thursday.

"We’re running the gauntlet," H/B coach Mike Soucy said after his team's loss to Milford on Tuesday. "We’ve got (Milford) twice, and Souhegan twice, and Bedford twice, and Pelham twice and Goffstown and Portsmouth and Hanover and John Stark. It never ends."

It doesn't end for H/B, but there is a respite next week, as the Cavs will again take part in the Chick-fil-A Holiday Tournament at Nashua North. H/B opens the tournament at 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 28 against Thornton Academy of Saco, Maine.

With three holiday tournament games against some quality teams along with the tough regular-season schedule and the Cavs could be in good shape when the Division II tournament rolls around.

Of course, they'll have to get in first.

"With the schedule we have, it’s brutal, and if we’re fortunate enough to win enough games to get us into the tournament, I think we’re going to be a tough out because we’re going to be tournament tested already," Soucy said. "It’s playing in front of crowds, but it’s also playing against competition like this night-in, and night-out.

"That’s going to be good for us if we can get into the tournament. I think we can, I think the pieces are there, we just need to get better."