Hollis Brookline's Alton Williams goes up against Souhegan's Sean Zerega (24) and Evan Bernasconi during Tuesday night's Division II prelim at Nashua North. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Ready, set, energize.

When that lever is pulled, the Hollis Brookline High School boys basketball team turns into the Acela Express, faster than your average locomotive.

The Souhegan High School boys basketball team found that out over the final two minutes of Tuesday night’s Division II preliminary round game at Nashua North. The Cavs turned a fairly close six-point game into a runaway win, 54-39, and will now head to Kingston on Friday night to take on No.3 Sanborn in the quarterfinals.

Steal, pass,jam. Steal, pass, Jam. Steal, pass, layup. Rinse and repeat, as they just turned what had been a slogging tourney game into Showtime. Not bad for a group that had never played in the postseason.

“We practice running,” Cavs coach Ryan Kelley said. “We run with the ball, we run with the ball, and we run a little bit more.”

HB has the big guy, 6-6 junior Alton Williams, who led all scorers with 22 points. Plus his sidekick, point guard Yarie Ramas, who sets the pace and had 10. And the rest follow, as James Arthur added nine.

“Sometimes you just have to let the energy out,” Kelley said, “and let them let the energy out. You saw what happened in that two-minute spurt.

“Fortunately we have the athletes, we have depth, we have the height, we have ball handling, we have generals, we have a lot that we can utilize on this team.”

And basically the No. 11 Sabers, who finished 8-11, didn’t. They had a 17-14 lead late in the first half but went into the locker room down 18-17. The game was tied at 27 when Drew Reagan hit a 3-pointer with 1:48 left in the third quarter, but Williams and Ramas hit hoops to make it 31-27 HB going into the final quarter, and the Cavs never lost the lead. They started the fourth quarter with a 5-0 run and led 36-27, the closest the Sabers could get was six the rest of the way because HB’s thievery wouldn’t let them get settled.

“Turnovers have been kind our Achilles heel all year,” Sabers coach Peter Pierce said. “They (the Cavs) earned it. They ramped up the defensive intensity a little bit, and we didn’t match that. We played about as well as we could play with the players we had dressed.”

And simply put, the Sabers had no one to match up with Williams. Not many teams do.

“He has really developed, he has turned the corner this year,” Pierce said. “Everybody in the division has been watching his progression. Works hard, he’s doing the right things, he’s earned everything that’s coming to him.”

Pierce takes the silver lining that his eight win team that graduates six gave it their all and gave a Cavs team it lost to by 28 over a month ago a game. Reagan finished with 10 points while Sean Zerega had 12. The Sabers were without one of their best players, junior Weston Hickman.

“I’m proud of this team, they gave me everything they had,” Pierce said. “They fought hard. Six weeks ago we lost to this team by 30, 33 points and tonight we gave them a game for three-and-a-half quarters.”

Hollis Brookline’s Dylan Kelley drives against Souhegan’s Evan Bernasconi during Tuesday night’s Division II prelim at Nashua North. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Hollis Brookline’s Dylan Kelley drives against Souhegan’s Evan Bernasconi during Tuesday night’s Division II prelim at Nashua North. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

But that final half a quarter will open some eyes, especially since the game was played at North’s Titans Gym, which has a bigger floor than at HB, more akin to what the Cavs may see at UNH if it gets to the finals. Hollis’ annual town/school meeting robbed it of one true home tourney game you’d expect a 14-win team to have, and a late season loss to Merrimack Valley robbed it of a second in the quarters. Thus HB has to travel to face a Sanborn team it beat 59-54 at home back on Jan. 7 as the Indians handled ConVal 67-48. Last night, though, was a quick trip.

“It’s not about the fact we had to travel 12 minutes,” Kelley said. “It was only 12 minutes. But what we got was the benefit of a long court game that no one else in this bracket got that rep on early. So we’re hoping to be able to take advantage of that.”

Heck, they won’t need the bus to Sanborn. The Cavs can just run there.

TONIGHT’S GAMES

The Division I boys hoop tourney opens up tonight, and the slate has four locals in action: No. 13 Merrimack is at No. 4 Nashua South at 6 p.m.; at 6:30 it will be No. 9 Windham at No. 8 Bishop Guertin, and No. 10 Manchester Memorial at No. 7 Alvirne.

Also, the Division II girls tourney begins, and No. 13 Hollis Brookline is at No. 4 Oyster River at 6 p.m. Milford, No. 2, has a first-round bye and will play the winner of No. 10 Coe-Brown at No. 7 Bow in Saturday’s quarterfinals.