Len sets career mark, but Souhegan offense struggles in boys basketball loss to Portsmouth

AMHERST – Senior Night was Friday at Souhegan High School, but for the nine seniors on the boys basketball team, it was more like a senior nightmare. The Sabers managed just 11 first-half points against Portsmouth and only five more in the third quarter to trail 33-16 after three. Defense and Portsmouth’s own shooting woes kept the Sabers within shouting distance until the final minute, but they dropped a 46-34 decision and will have no time to recover. The Sabers, now 9-6, will climb on a bus at 9:30 a.m. Saturday and head to Hanover for a 2:30 p.m. start. “We have to put this one behind us quickly, which is probably a good thing,’’ Souhegan coach Mike Heaney said. “I was proud of the way my kids hung in defensively, but all anyone will talk about tomorrow is how tough a night we had offensively.’’ Souhegan senior Brandon Len became the school’s all-time leading scorer Friday, needing just one point coming into the game to surpass Jessie Lynch, who scored 1,090 points in the 1990s. Len wouldn’t get it until he hit a pair of free throws midway through the second quarter for his only points of the first half. Len, who finished as Souhegan’s only double-figure scorer with 14 points, wouldn’t get his first field goal until early in the third quarter on what turned into a three-point play and brought the Sabers to within 27-14. But the Sabers wouldn’t make another field goal until Len hit a floater in the lane with 6:48 left in the game, pulling the Sabers to within 37-20.