Souhegan's Zofia Rosenfield looks to drive against Oyster River's AshlingFerris during Wednesday's Divison II prelim in Amherst. (Photo by Joe Marchilena/NH-HighSchoolSports.com)

AMHERST – There has been a core belief the Souhegan High School girls basketball team has followed all season.

No matter what its looked like for the Sabers on offense, they have to be able to fall back on their defense.

In Wednesday’s Division II preliminary-game, No. 7 Souhegan was locked in defensively, and while the offense sputtered in the first half, the Sabers got it going in the second half to pull away from No. 10 Oyster River for a 43-23 win.

It’s the first playoff win for Souhegan (14-5) since 2016, which was also the last time the Sabers hosted a postseason game. They move on to face No. 2 Derryfield, which had a bye in the first round, in the quarterfinal on Saturday.

“I thought there were some nerves early on,” Souhegan coach Greg Cotreau said. “The crowd was pretty good. I think the one thing that the girls did a really good job of is we defended really well in the first half. We say it all the time, our offense is going to be what it is, but we have a certain standard on how we want to defend.”

Souhegan led just 12-9 at halftime, but outscored Oyster River (9-10) in the third quarter, 17-2, to take control of the game. The Bobcats made just two free throws in the frame and went almost 16 minutes without a field goal.

“I thought our girls fought hard,” Oyster River coach Bryan Wall said. “We were running a little of a rebuild this year and it showed at times, but the heart was there (Wednesday) and the things that we worked on in practice to come in and play this team, I thought they executed it really well for the most part. We had a little stretch there that hurt us, but I’m proud of the effort.”

Oyster River’s zone defense caused problems for the Sabers in the first half, but Souhegan was able to make an adjustment that got the offense going after halftime.

“We had lots of pockets where we’d drive, attack the seams in their zone, and we’d have a couple of kids collapse and then we’d take the shot anyway,” Cotreau said. “We talked a lot about it at halftime, about still continue to drive, attack the seam, but once you draw that second defender, your job is done. Move the ball and let’s reverse it, and there’s going to be stuff on the backside that’s going to be wide open.”

Seven players had points for the Sabers, led Mariellah Dart with 10 points while Julia Skelton had nine points and Zofia Rosenfield chipped in with eight points.

Wren Horne scored nine of her game-high 13 points in the fourth quarter, including two 3-pointers, while Jazzy Alvarez added five points and Payton Drapeau had three markers.

After getting a jump ball on the Sabers’ opening possession of the third quarter, the Bobcats turned it back over on each of their first three possessions. Two led to Souhegan baskets, and moments later, a steal by Dart led to a three-point play that made it 19-9 Sabers.

A free throw by Horne got Oyster River on the board in the second half, but a jump shot by Brynn Sisk and a 3 by Dart put Souhegan up 24-10 and forced a timeout by the Bobcats.

“We just said that the first four minutes of the third quarter were going to determine, is this going to be a grind-it-out rock fight the whole way through?” Cotreau said. “Or can we push our lead from three to eight to 10 within the first four minutes? If we do that, it kind of gives us a little bit of breathing room.

“We really put it on the kids to say the first four minutes are going to dictate how the rest of this game goes. They took that to heart and they came out and played like their season was on the line.”