Hollis Brookline boys basketball clamps down on defense to beat Souhegan (video)

AMHERST - The Hollis Brookline High School boys basketball team found itself in a track meet in the first half of Tuesday night's game with Souhegan.

After going up and down the floor with the Sabers, the defense finally came together for the Cavaliers, and in a matter of moments, the complexion of the game changed.

HB went on a 12-0 run in the final three-plus minutes of the first half, and then held Souhegan to just a dozen points in the second half, as the Cavs beat the Sabers 55-32 for their fifth win in a row in Division II.

With Souhegan's zone slowing down HB's Matt Simco and Matt Dowling in the first half, Grant Snyder and Jonathan Brackett stepped up to handle the scoring. Snyder had 10 of his game-high 14 points before halftime, while Brackett had eight of his 10 points early on for the Cavs (9-2).

"It speaks a lot about our team," Brackett said. "Obviously, Souhegan’s game plan coming was to stop our two big men. They’re two of the best big men in the division. Our guards overcame that adversity. We talk a lot about patience on offense and taking the right shots. We might not be the best shooting team on the court, but we work the ball around and we have the patience to take the right shot."

Tyler MacDormand came off the bench to add nine points for HB and Dowling ended up with seven.

"We had a bunch of guys contribute," HB coach Cole Etten said. "In the grand scheme of things, we’re a team here. To me, and to the team, we have to score as a team, whether it’s Matt or Matt or JB or Scott (VanCoughnett) or Grant or anybody. All of those guys are capable of stepping up and making plays."

For the final 20 minutes of the game, it was the Cavs' defense that was stepping up. After Souhegan took a 20-18 lead on a 3-pointer by Ryan Hickey with 4:44 left in the first half, HB outscored Souhegan 37-12, including the 12-0 run to end the first half.

As the Sabers (8-6) struggled to score, the defense began to break down, and HB did just enough to stretch out its lead.

"We had a game plan, we packed it in, we executed it for about a quarter and a half," Souhegan coach Peter Pierce said. "Then we failed to score, and by not scoring, I think may have let that affect our defensive intensity. We’re just not physical enough to beat that team."

Jordan Lau Quan led the Sabers with eight points and Anderson Geffrard had scored his six points in the first half. Souhegan was without starting big man Matt McCool and backup point guard Trey Johnson, both to injuries, and also lost Jeff Boehm late in the second quarter.

After falling behind 5-0 early, came back to take a 7-5 lead on a basket by Max Leonard with three minutes left in the first quarter. That basket started a furious finish to the frame, as the teams traded scores the rest of the way and HB led 14-13 at the end of one.

That pace continued into the second quarter until Hickey's 3 gave the Sabers their last lead of the game. With 3:21 left in the half, Leonard was called for a foul, and in frustration, slammed the ball into the floor, drawing a technical foul.

"I’ve seen more cheap technicals this year than ever before and more taunting calls," Pierce said. "It’s just ridiculous. You bounce the ball hard, he didn’t bounce it at anybody. The threshold for calling technical is ridiculously low. Anybody knows intent. There was no intent. It changed the momentum of the game."

Snyder made both free throws to tie the game at 20 and then hit a jumper on the possession for a four-point swing, starting HB on the run that ended the half.

"That was a really big one," Snyder said. "I felt like that turned the game at that point. We felt like we could move the ball and get some shots going to rim."

Hickey opened the second half with a jump shot to end the scoring drought for Souhegan, but the Sabers would go the rest of the quarter without scoring and trailed 36-22 going into the fourth. HB put the game away with a 10-0 run that made it 46-24 with 4:37 to play.

"It was huge for our guys to just stick together because we were finally able to get some stops on defense," Etten said. "We kept our composure for most of the game and that’s a credit to our guys. We had to stick with the things that we do well."