On a night when the Pembroke Academy boys basketball team was ice cold shooting from the outside, head coach Matt Alosa couldn’t help but think of warmer days in March.

Despite shooting 12 percent from beyond the threepoint arc, the Spartans managed a 56-45 victory against John Stark on Wednesday, Feb. 11, at NHTI, Concord’s Community College.

Following a 75-60 victory against Bedford on Saturday, Feb. 14, and a 59-46 triumph over Merrimack Valley on Tuesday, Feb. 17, the Spartans improved to 15-1, leaving Alosa with the hope his charges are about to play their best basketball.

“Whoever wins (the Class I championship) needs to be hot at the beginning of March,” said Alosa. “You can catch anyone when you’re having a bad night, and that’s when you lose.”

Despite the poor longrange shooting, the Spartans still hit 40 percent overall after shooting 31 percent during the first half. At the break, PA led by four points, 23-19.

“Turnovers and missed free throws really hurt us,” said Stark’s head coach, Mike Smith, whose team was 17-for- 29 – roughly 59 percent – from the charity stripe. “Pembroke is a very hard team to match up with because they’re so athletic. They took us out of a lot of the things we wanted to do.”

Despite its 10th loss, John Stark remains in the hunt for a playoff spot. Smith answered quickly when asked how many wins his team needs to sneak into the tournament.

“Seven wins should be good enough to get in,” he said. “We’ve got a steep road ahead. We’ve played everyone in the division close, and everyone we have left is going to play us tough. We have to win three out of four, and it’s not impossible for this team.”

On Friday, Feb. 13, John Stark hosted 7-7 Plymouth Regional in what Smith called a “must win.” His team responded, cruising to its fifth victory, 71-42.

But the team absorbed another setback after a 79-72 loss to 10-5 Milford on Tuesday, Feb. 17.

Lebanon, with a doubledigit victory total, visits next on Friday, Feb. 20. Stark’s regular season ends at Kearsarge Regional, another of a handful of squads seeking the 16th, and final, spot in the postseason.

In the game versus John Stark, Pembroke’s Jonathan Grenier, Sheldon Benson and Christian Davis all scored in double figures, with Grenier’s 17 points leading the group.

Taylor Vazquez led PA against Bedford with 19 points. Kevin LeBlond’s 18 points paced the Generals against Pembroke, while Nick Campono dropped in 11 markers.

Alosa said his team has four scorers averaging in double figures this season, with a fifth hovering around nine points per game, and that makes the Spartans a difficult foe in the tournament.

“We don’t have just one guy. It’ll be a different guy every night, and you never know who that will be,” said Alosa. “That’ll be important in the playoffs. Rarely do you have a whole team not shooting the ball well in one night.”