Souhegan girls basketball storms back to pick up win over Timberlane

AMHERST - The Souhegan High School girls basketball team would not have been the first team to turn in a poor performance on senior night.

With emotions running high after the pregame sendoff for the team's seven seniors, plus a moment to recognize Mia Len's recent achievement of her 1,000th-career point, and the Sabers opened Monday night's tilt with Timberlane a little flat.

The Owls led throughout the first half, going up nine points late in the second quarter, but Souhegan found a way to right the ship. The Sabers held Timberlane without a field goal for more than 17 minutes and got the offense going in the second half on the way to a 42-24 win over the Owls in Division II action.

Down 19-10 with a little more than three minutes to play in the second quarter, Souhegan (7-9) outscored the Owls (6-9) 32-5 the rest of the way. Timberlane had just three free throws and a field goal in the second half.

The win also kept Souhegan's playoff hopes alive, although the Sabers likely need to win at least one of their final two games - at Lebanon and at Pembroke - to advance. Timberlane also still has a shot at getting into the postseason, despite the loss.

"I told them I was proud of them," Souhegan coach Mike Heaney said. "It would have been easy for them to really fold after a tough first half. The message at halftime was that we couldn’t have played much worse and we’re only down two possessions.

"Then we came out right away in the second half and get a couple of early buckets. Then I think the kids really believed we were going to be OK. Credit to Timberlane, they really come right at you and give you their very best."

Len led all scorers with 16 points, including three 3-pointers, but had just four in the first half, as Timberlane face-guarded the senior guard to try to slow her down. After struggling to get shots early, Len was able to distribute instead, and other players got open looks, as Beth Greenwood added 10 points and Madison Robicheau and Molly Driscoll had six apiece.

"We came out playing hard and being aggressive," Timberlane coach Julia Howe said. "We face-guarded (Len) and I think that helped us get off on the right foot. I think she made the adjustment in terms of only taking an occasional shot, but she did really well creating for her teammates. We’d get in and double team her and she knew it was coming and find the open person. She got her teammates a lot of open shots and that hurt us."

The Owls got seven points from Mia Censullo and six from Lauren Rich, whose basket with 3:18 left in the first half gave Timberlane a 19-10 lead. A putback by Driscoll made it 19-12 with 1:44 to play until halftime, and Len came up with a steal and found Greenwood in transition to make it a five-point game going into the break.

After Robicheau opened the second half with a layup, Censullo hit two free throws to make it a 21-16 lead for the Owls, but they wouldn't score again for more than 10 minutes.

On Souhegan's next possession, Len hit a 3 from about five feet behind the line to get the Sabers bench and the crowd going, and after a turnover by the Owls, Greenwood tied the game at 21. That started Souhegan on an 11-0 run to end the quarter.

"We talk a lot about getting ahead of the ball and winning the spot, and not trying to guard the ball as much as the spot," Heaney said. "We did that in the second half. We were fouling less and played smaller. The message before the game was don’t worry about steals, let them turn the ball over, and we did that."