Souhegan pleased with performance at Chick-fil-A basketball tournament
NASHUA - The season didn't start the way the Souhegan High School boys basketball team wanted it to.
The Sabers started 0-2 in Division II, and suffered injuries to two starters and two reserves that threw a monkey wrench in to their planned rotations.
But after a win over Alvirne and a last-second loss Saturday to Nashua South at the Chick-fil-A Holiday Tournament, Souhegan is feeling all right.
"To come here and beat Alvirne, to play the host of the tournament in their gym, to be down nine and come back and have the lead with eight-tenths of a second left," Souhegan coach Mike Heaney said. "I told them how proud I am of them."
While Heaney said he'd likely spend the rest of the day wondering what the Sabers could have done differently against the Panthers, it was probably better for his team to not have to come back and play again in the championship game on Saturday.
"We would have had a really tough time coming back and playing a second game," he said. "Where we are with health and injuries, (Sunday) we'll feel better about not playing in a championship game. It was a great experience, especially for the guys we didn't know we'd have to count on, and we did count on them and they stepped up and played."
Brandon Len led the Sabers in scoring in both games, and had a two-game total of 55 points, as he earned all-tournament team honors. Jake Kennedy was also among Souhegan's leading scorers, as was Brian Dworkin, who had eight points in each game. Souhegan also got big minutes from AJ Hayes, Connor Holbrook, Tanner Kent and Matt Protzmann.
Tyler Ford also returned to play key minutes against South and Heaney is hopeful Zack Simmonds can return for Friday's Division II game at Milford.
"We were getting contributions from guys we weren't expecting to," Heaney said. "I saw a lot of coaches in the stands scouting this game (against South), and they can't feel good about how we played without a couple of our key guys."
