Sabers overcome slow start to beat Cavs

HOLLIS – The Souhegan High School girls basketball team was not handling its first big test of the season well.

The Sabers trailed Hollis/Brookline by nine points in the first quarter, and had turned the ball over eight times, prompting coach Jeremy Faulkner to use two timeouts in the first eight minutes.

“We really wanted this game,” Faulkner said. “I tried getting it out of their heads.”

Faulkner was successful, and so were the Sabers.

Souhegan (5-0 in Division II) outscored H/B 42-19 in the second and third quarters to take an 18-point lead going into the fourth, and held on for a 65-54 win that knocked the Cavaliers (6-1) from the ranks of the unbeaten.

“I’ve got to give it to Souhegan tonight, they did play pretty well,” H/B coach Bob Murphy said. “They hustled more than we did. They got the rebounds more than we did. They made more shots.”

Most of those shots came from Christan Wojtas and Ceara McNamara in the first half, and Jane White in the third quarter.

White scored a game-high 21 points, including 10 in the third quarter, and was 11-of-13 from the free throw line. Wojtas scored 13 of her 18 points in the first half, while McNamara had 17 points, nine of which also came in the first half.

“I wanted to have people in the two girls’ faces, denying them,” Murphy said. “That just didn’t happen. They got free off screens. We’ll find out how they got free. They were just too open too often. And the White girl, going to the basket, we had a tough time slowing her down.”

But even though the Sabers turned things around offensively, Faulkner felt it was his team’s defense that changed the game.

“Our defense took control,” he said. “We made a couple of adjustments in the second timeout of the first quarter and that’s when we started bringing a little back. In the second quarter, we made more adjustments. We needed to be better on the defensive end and we were.”

Kelsey Berry and Olivia Gillis each had 18 points for the Cavs, while Katie Stopera added 13 points, including three 3-pointers.

Most of H/B’s points came in the first seven minutes of the game, and in the fourth quarter, when the Cavs cut an 18-point Souhegan lead down to seven points. With 5:32 remaining, H/B trailed 58-40, but a 14-3 run, capped by a putback by McHale Perkins, made it a 61-54 game with 1:44 left.

The Cavs were breaking for more following a defensive rebound, but a turnover gave the ball back to Souhegan and the Sabers started running out the clock. Souhegan made 4-of-6 free throws in the final minute.

“It’s good that we were able to take control of the game and finish,” Faulkner said. “I think Jane taking the ball to the hole, the defense getting sucked up and making those passes, it kept stopping their momentum. Whenever they got some momentum, she stopped the bleeding.”

Murphy hopes that the loss will not only help the Cavs figure out a few things about themselves, but also make them a little angry.

“I wanted to make it a respectable game,” he said. “The kids came back and took their shots and we made some shots. We’ll learn from this. We’ll get a little upset about it. It could be good for us.”

The Cavs will look to bounce back on Friday at Portsmouth, while the Sabers travel to Northwood to face Coe-Brown.