Souhegan overcomes slow start to beat Milford

MILFORD - The way Dan Murray and Mike Heaney looked after Friday night's high school boys basketball game, one would have thought they had been playing.

Just another Souhegan-Milford game in the Milford gym.

With students from both school making up more than half the crowd, and with both sections letting making their presence known, the Sabers overcame a slow start to pick up their 10th win of the season, 63-47, over the Spartans. Its the third win for Souhegan this season against its rival, after going more than five years without beating the Spartans.

But early on, this one had a familiar feel to it.

The Sabers (10-1 in Division II) came out of the gate unable to make a basket and the Spartans (4-8) took advantage, building a 7-0 lead with 3:38 to go in the first quarter. Not only was Souhegan missing shots, but Milford was keeping the Sabers from getting any second opportunities.

"Early on, we were nervous," said Heaney, the Souhegan coach. "We were a little shaky and I think that was just the crowd and the excitement. We were settling for quick shots. They did a great job on the glass. We couldn’t get those second or third shots.

"It was almost like once all of our starting five took their first shot, everything fell. Once we hit a couple, we were OK."

Brandon Len started things off, getting Souhegan's first points, and he led the Sabers with 14. Shaun McKenna added 13 points and Ben Peterson finished with nine while Souhegan got six points each from four other players.

Milford got a game-high 18 points from Jared Lakin, four of which came on 3-pointers. Jovi Philbrick, playing in just his second game of the season, added 11.

"It was the hardest we played all year," Murray said. "They’re starting to figure it out. We’re still not executing as well as we should."

The game was tied at 9 at the end of the first quarter, and Souhegan had a 14-12 lead when Milford's Richie Moore was called for a foul and then quickly picked up a technical foul. The Sabers went up by four, but the Spartans tied it at 16 before Souhegan closed the half on an 8-2 to take a 24-18 lead at halftime.

"The big play was when Richie picked up the technical," Murrsay said. "I thought that was pretty costly."

In the second half, it was Milford's turn to get off to the slow start, as Souhegan extended the lead to 10.

"We were playing hard, we just weren’t mentally tough," Murray said.

"In the second half, I thought we defended the ball a lot better," Heaney said.

Milford was able to get the lead back down to seven points a few times, but it seemed every time the Spartans cut into it, the Sabers pushed the lead back to double digits. Logan Barlow's 3-pointer made it 43-36 with 5:37 left to play, but Souhegan came right back with a 3 of its own to make it a 10-point game and the Sabers ended the game on a 20-11 run.

" Every time we got it there (to 10), it felt like we couldn’t get a bigger margin than that," Heaney said. "We couldn’t get to the point where it felt comfortable. I didn’t go to the bench until the last minute because the way they can shoot the ball, they could put together an 8-0 run in the last few minutes. I never felt like it was over until 30 seconds were left."