Second-half surge lifts Bishop Brady boys basketball past Souhegan

AMHERST – One moment, the Bishop Brady High School boys basketball team was in a tight game Friday night with Souhegan.

And then, seemingly just like that, the Giants were cruising to a victory.

Souhegan made it a two-point game early in the third quarter, but Bishop Brady went on a 16-4 run to close the quarter and rolled to a 76-60 win over the Sabers in Division II action.

Aaron Svendsen led the Giants (11-2) with 22 points and Jourdain Bell chipped in with 20 points as Bishop Brady took advantage of mistakes by the Sabers (4-7) to break open what had been a surprisingly close game through the first 20 minutes.

“Souhegan played a great game,” Bishop Brady coach Cole Etten said. “In the first half they were hitting shots, but in the second half, we were able to capitalize when we were rebounding well and getting into transition.

“The second half especially, we were able to get stops, and when we get defensive rebounds and make stops, we’re able to push the ball in transition. When we get out in transition a lot of good things happen for our team.”

Good things were what the Giants started to see a lot more of in their last game, and according to Bell, they just wanted to find a way to get that to carry over into Friday.

“We knew that this team, even though their record might not show it, that they’re a very good team,” he said. “Anything could have happened.

“We went through a stretch where we weren’t playing to our potential. We came in (Friday), we knew we were doing everything right and playing well, and they just stayed in the game. If we kept playing with consistency, then we knew it’d end up being a pretty good game, that we’d keep pushing.”

Souhegan got 14 points from Alex Hill while Jerrell Webster and Raju Gandhi each had 12 points, including a 3-pointer in the third quarter that made it a 39-37 game with 5:31 to go in the frame.

The Sabers had a chance to tie or take the lead after that, but missed a shot and the Giants turned a defense rebound into a basket by Joseph Bell to go up four. Souhegan then turned the ball over on four consecutive possessions and the Giants capitalized, scoring 12 straight points to take a 51-37 lead.

“They played really well for 20 minutes,” Souhegan coach Peter Pierce said. “They were competing and they played well, and for the most part, they executed and they were engaged. Part of it was our decision making. Good teams don’t need a lot of opportunity and that’s a good team. It’s a tough loss because we were competing well into the third quarter.”

Souhegan had answered every Bishop Brady run in the first half, but the Giants went into halftime up 37-29 after going on a 7-2 run to close the half.

The Giants’ 16-4 run in the third quarter put them up 55-41 going into the fourth, and they scored the first six points of the quarter thanks to a foul and technical foul on the Sabers. Souhegan wasn’t able to get any closer than 16 points the rest of the way.

“We kept our composure,” Etten said. “Souhegan came out and played hard the whole game and we needed to match that. We were able to play defense well in the second half, and offensively, we were able to score a little more.”