Hollis Brookline boys basketball opens season with win over Souhegan

AMHERST - Mike Soucy had reason to be concerned heading into Friday night's season opener between his Hollis Brookline High School boys basketball team and Souhegan.

The teams were playing for the fifth time in less than a year, and of those previous four, the Cavaliers lost the three that counted. And going into the season, HB hadn't looked good.

"We have not been playing well," Soucy said. Our scrimmages have not been going well. We went to Bishop Guertin on Monday and got annihilated. The last three days, we really made an effort to focus on the defensive end of the floor in the halfcourt and the glass."

All that focus worked. The Cavs dominated the boards and played great defense against the Sabers, holding Souhegan point guard Brandon Len to one point in the second half of a 53-43 victory.

PJ Flaum had 18 points and backcourt mate Connor Walsh added 12 points for the Cavs, who jumped out to a 16-point lead in the second quarter as the Sabers got into foul trouble.

"Hats off to Hollis, they were prepared and they outplayed us on both sides of the ball," Souhegan coach Mike Heaney said. "They killed us on the glass. They came in with a great game plan to outwork us and they did.

"Are there things we need to correct and change? Yeah, but the way we came out of the locker room, being mentally ready to compete, and we really weren't. Can't say enough good things about Hollis. They executed well."

Souhegan was able to cut the lead down to nine points at halftime, thanks to Len's 14 first-half points, but the HB lead was still eight at the end of the third quarter.

The Sabers opened the final quarter with a 5-0 run, cutting the lead down to 40-37 with 6:06 to play, as the Cavs went almost six minutes without scoring. Despite the drought, Soucy and his team didn't panic.

"At that point, we still had the lead and we were playing well defensively, we just weren't scoring," Soucy said. "What I told my guys, especially at halftime, when we take the floor, the team that's down is going to play with much higher intensity. We don't need to match the intensity level, we need to match it with poise and intelligence. That's how we managed that. I said that at every timeout, poise and intelligence, and they stuck with it."

HB went on a 7-3 run to boost its lead and made enough free throws down the stretch to keep control of the game.

"We dug ourselves an early hole, and the foul trouble changed our attack," Heaney said. "I've said this to a lot of people, anybody who is sleeping on (the Cavs) is out of their minds."

Both teams go on the road on Tuesday, as Souhegan heads to Lebanon and HB travels to Pelham.