DURHAM – Raise your hand if, back in December, you had the Souhegan High School Sabers winning the Division II boys basketball title.

Anyone?

Didn’t think so.

Perhaps that fueled the Sabers through what ended up being a magical 20-1 championship season, ending with a grinding 53-51 overtime title game win over rival ConVal this past Sunday at the University of New Hampshire’s Lundholm Gym.

“One hundred percent,” Souhegan’s Nolan Colby said. “Fuel to the fire. Doubters are always going to be there. You always have to use them as motivation.

“We had full confidence. We knew since the summer, the fall, we had talent. We just needed to come together as a team, and then we figured out we could win, and now we’re here.”

Here celebrating. The Sabers were locked in a battle with the 18-4 Cougars, despite starting the game with a 10-2 first-quarter lead. That shrunk to 21-17 by halftime and turned into a 34-30 deficit entering the final quarter.

But the Sabers, on a Colby 3-pointer, regained the lead 42-40 with 2:33 left in regulation. It took two free throws with 1:05 left by ConVal’s Joe Gutwein (game high 21 points) to send the game into overtime. And that was an overtime that nearly didn’t take place when the Cougars’ Austin Knight back-rimmed a buzzer-beating attempt from near half-court, a shot that looked good for a bit.

In the overtime, the Sabers started with a Johnny McBride traditional three-point play to grab a 45-42 lead – the senior had five points but a whopping 15 rebounds. However, they were down 46-45 when Keegan Burke hit two free throws with 1:24 left to start a 7-0 run that included a big layup by sophomore Joe Bernasconi (nine points).

Game over.

“For those kids, who didn’t play last year, mind you, to come together and play in a final, a semifinal, and quarterfinal and post a 20-1 record, unbelievable,” said Sabers coach Peter Pierce, who also didn’t coach last year due to the pandemic. “Some of these kids I didn’t even know. I hadn’t met them until the first day of the season. That’s pretty remarkable too.”

The Sabers, who were led by junior Matt Canavan’s 19 points, simply went back to basics in the final quarter and extra session

“I just think we needed to trust what we’ve done all year,”said Colby, who had 12 points. “Like rebound, play defense, and trust in your teammates.”

“They just kind of made some plays and we didn’t down the stretch, especially in the overtime,” ConVal coach Jason Starr said. “That buzzer beater at the end of regulation was so in and out. In the overtime period, they had some players step up and took advantage of the opportunity they had.”

The start hurt the Cougars, who were nearly shut out in the first quarter, not scoring until 30 seconds left.

“We weren’t hitting our shots, we may have had some early-game jitters on the big floor,” Starr said. “But I was proud we were able to battle back after that start. As much as we weren’t scoring, we weren’t down by 20 or anything like that.”

But in the end, the Sabers just played at a different level by the overtime for what no one could have envisioned back in early December.

“In my mind, it’s just pure competitive spirit,” Pierce, the Division II Coach of the Year, said. “They all excelled at other sports. They’re all accomplished athletes in other sports and just have a great competitive fire. Look where it gets you.

“All year we’ve been that good. We were down 22 points in the second half on Opening Night and won. It (down four going into the fourth quarter) wasn’t an issue. … They know if they work hard on the defensive end, good things are going to happen for them. … They are phenomenal defenders. We just held that team to 51 in overtime.”

On the offensive end, Pierce certainly felt the high-flying Canavan was a big key as well.

“Matt turned it on,” he said. “And he didn’t play much last year,either. He’s just going to get better and better. Offensively he gives us a spark. He just gives us a spark when we need it. Some of the stuff he finished was unbelievable.”

Believe.

“We always,” McBride said, “believed that we could. … Resiliency has always been our thing. We never had any doubt. They came back, and we knew that they would. It was a game of runs, but we came out on top.”