HANOVER — A year after a young roster brought them to a state title game, everything is surprisingly new for the Hanover Bears boys basketball team following an ofFseason of dramatic change.

What hasn’t changed? A relentless defensive effort and championship mindset that the players who stayed have carried over seamlessly.

Hanover roared past a six-point halftime deficit with a monster third quarter to down the visiting Souhegan Sabers, 52-34, on Tuesday night and improve to 4-1 on the young season. The Bears managed just 12 points in the first half before erupting with 22 consecutive points to start the third quarter and all but put the game away.

For Hanover, it was a display on all phases from players who have had to step into bigger roles — and a coach who’s had to do the same.

Hanover made the state final a year ago but lost star forward Christian Blix to graduation, emerging star sophomore guard Ryan McLaughlin (son of Dartmouth basketball coach David McLaughlin) to prep school and steady big man Jaysen Oriol to a move out of the district. Combined with coach Ben Davis leaving to take the athletic director job at Lebanon High, it’s a team of mostly returning players for new coach and former assistant Denver Greene — but players who have had to shoulder much larger loads.

“It’s been everyone, and it’s also been no one,” Greene said of the challenge of stepping up. “Obviously we lost some guys, but we also brought back eight guys. I’ve been on the staff a couple of years, which made the transition easier.”

Chief among the players to step up has been Wyatt Daigle. The athletic junior has moved into the forward spot with gusto, pacing the Bears on Wednesday with 16 points and being a force on the defensive end with several emphatic swats.

Souhegan managed just two makes inside the arc in the second half, in large part a credit to the work of Daigle and fellow junior Samuel Bagatell, as well as the intense pressure from the Hanover guards that produced 12 second-half turnovers from the Sabers (3-2).

Greene credited a pair of senior captains at the guard spots as the driver of Hanover’s success, noting the work of Beckett Sobel and Dave Frechette in leading the team.

“They’ve been in the program for three years, and their leadership really just trickles down to the other guys,” Greene said.

Sobel tied for the lead in scoring with 16 points, keeping the Hanover offense afloat with buzzer-beaters at the end of both the first and second quarters.

The shifty guard with a very involved family — his mother Megan is the school’s athletic director and his father David serves as the public address announcer – also piled up several steals and impressively pulled down several rebounds in traffic despite being listed at just 5-foot-9.

Does Greene see another trip to Durham for a state final in the works?

“One day at a time,” he said. “But we’ve got a really good approach (and) we work well in practice.”

Hanover hosts Bow (2-2) on Friday at 6:30 p.m.