Confidence growing for the Souhegan girls basketball team

Mike Heaney watched his Souhegan High School girls basketball team playing during the second half of Tuesday night's game against Hollis Brookline and wondered if it was time to start getting everyone some minutes.

The Cavaliers led by 22 points midway through the third quarter, but rather than start going deep into his bench, Heaney had another thought.

"At one point, I looked and wondered if it was time to start clearing the bench," he said. "No, let's keep working against a good team. The irony is it turned out to be good for us."

The Sabers outscored HB 20-9 over a stretch that spanned the third and fourth quarters, and although they never got closer than eight points, Heaney felt something else happened with his team.

"Confidence on offense has been a struggle for us at times this year," he said. "In the second half, the kids looked at the rim and they knocked down shots. I joke that I've never done more shooting drills in practice than I have this year, and in the second half, maybe it finally clicked. It was confidence on offense."

While some of that offense came from point guard Mia Len, who finished with 17 points, including two 3-pointers during that dominant stretch, Souhegan (4-7) also got some scoring from some unlikely places. Katie O'Brien came off the bench to added 12 points, while Beth Greenwood, Jill Roberts and Maddie Robicheau also contributed key minutes.

"A kid like Jill Roberts, not a typical starter, but she starts and gives us six (points)," Heaney said. "Katie O'Brien is a volleyball player and she didn't know what a double double was until this year, and she's averaging close to a double double.

"We needed varsity IQ and there's no shortcut to get there. Our schedule is brutal, but playing good teams, that IQ curve is much faster or sharper than I thought it would be. We're getting there and so many kids are back next year."

One of those kids is Len, who as a junior, hasn't just taken over the role of Souhegan's go-to scorer, but has also become an extension of Heaney on the court.

"What's so neat for me as a coach watching Mia, I'll call a timeout and give my message, then I watch them walk on the floor, and she huddles them up and gives them another message," Heaney said. "I don't know what it is, but it's probably playing off what I just said. I know she's reinforcing it in a way that I can't because I'm not on the floor. It's the cliche, coach on the floor, but that's her now as a junior."

With a young team that's short on experience, Heaney was happy with the way the second half went against the Cavs, not just because of the Sabers response to being down by a large margin, but because of what it might mean long term.

"That will be what a first-round playoff game feels like, and other than some defensive mistakes and a little sloppiness early, if we can play that in the first round, we'll be competitive," he said. "We're young and we're inexperienced, and our message from November has been let's just play our best basketball on Feb. 28 and I think we're still heading toward that."