Pembroke boys basketball holds off Souhegan to remain undefeated

AMHERST - The boys basketball teams from Souhegan High School and Pembroke Academy entered Tuesday night's game with offenses that had been on a roll.

So of course the Sabers and the Spartans engaged in a defensive struggle.

Pembroke got out to an early lead and had just enough to hang to defeat Souhegan 44-40 in a Division II contest. The win helped the Spartans improve to 8-0 in the division, the lone undefeated team left in D2.

Neither team got a great game from its leading scorer, as Souhegan's Brandon Len had 14 points, below his season average, and Pembroke's Patrick Welch had just four points. But the Spartans got a game-high 23 points from Matt Persons, including 14 in the first half, as they overcame a 6-for-31 shooting performance in the final three quarters.

"We did what we could to win the game," Pembroke coach Matt Alosa said. "We got out to the good start and then we just didn't shoot well. Souhegan played great defense. They're obviously, for me, a top four team. I'm happy we came out of it with a win. I thought both teams played hard, we just happened to have a couple of balls bounce our way."

Welch battled a bad back and had Len guarding him for most of the game. On the other end, the Spartans' zone defense prevented the Sabers from consistently getting into the lane, and in turn, keeping them off the free throw line. Souhegan was 7 of 8 from the line, but all of those came in the game's final five minutes.

"It's a little different when a team not only plays zone, but when they play it really well," Souhegan coach Mike Heaney said. "Most teams let you drive into the gaps, but they really collapse on the gaps when you try to dribble penetrate. We could have done a better job of reversing the ball and attacking the gap. We only got eight free throws as a team, which shows you we weren't aggressive enough, and that's a credit to them."

Pembroke led throughout, getting ahead 8-5 before ending the first quarter on an 11-2 run. That gave the Spartans their biggest lead of the game, 19-7, and Souhegan spent the rest of the game trying to catch up.

The Sabers cut the lead to seven going into halftime, and opened the third quarter with a 6-0 run that made it a 26-25 game when Alosa called a timeout 1:23 into the quarter.

"We talk about winning the third quarter, like every team, but it can't be (just) talk," Heaney said. "We've been getting really good at that. We established Jake (Kennedy) early in the third quarter, which was big, and then our defense dug in. That's the best defense we've played in two years."

The Spartans scored just five points in the quarter and held a 31-29 lead going into the fourth. Kennedy, who had 12 points, scored the first four of the half, and Pembroke made the effort to keep from doing more damage.

"We tried to man with Kennedy because he is a beast underneath," Alosa said. "He is a big, strong, physical kid."

Although the Sabers never trailed by more than five the rest of the way, they couldn't get closer than two, despite having several opportunities to tie or take the lead.

Rene Maher also had 10 points for Pembroke while Souhegan got seven from Tyler Ford.