NORTH SUTTON – Austin Needham had a hand in every basket in the first quarter. AJ Tremblay hit 3-pointers in the second. The Whipple brothers went on a run in the third.

When you have as many contributors as the Kearsarge boys’ basketball team has, you’re tough to beat.

The Cougars had a hot hand from behind the arc in the first half and locked down defensively in the second half as No. 3 Kearsarge defeated No. 14 Conant, 57-38, in the first round of the NHIAA Division III tournament on Tuesday night.

“Our big thing is brotherhood. That’s our mantra this year,” Kearsarge head coach Nate Camp said. “It’s about helping in some way, having each other’s backs. It could be that you’re helping with points one night, assists, rebounds, but the most important thing is that you’re defending and having each other’s backs.”

The host Cougars (17-2) had contributions from players up and down the lineup. But it was Needham (16 points, three steals) who got things rolling early, assisting on Kearsarge’s first two buckets and then connecting on four 3-pointers in a row to give the Cougars a 16-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Fellow senior guard Tremblay (12 points, four assists, steal, block) hit two more threes early in the second quarter to help Kearsarge — which led by as many as 14 points at 22-8 — extend its lead to 31-21 at halftime. But Conant senior point guard Jared Nagle put his team on his back to keep the Orioles (7-12) in the game.

Nagle scored 15 of his game-high 21 points in the first half. Conant also outplayed Kearsarge on the boards in the first half, thanks to the efforts of Ben Sawyer (12 points, six rebounds, three steals), Hunter Schultz (six rebounds) and Dylan Adams (six rebounds).

The Cougars came out of the locker room fired up and the Whipple brothers, senior Noah (14 points, six assists) and sophomore Eli (six points, four assists, three rebounds, two steals), took over, leading Kearsarge to a 15-6 third quarter and a 46-27 lead heading into the fourth.

“We changed defenses, but we also forced (Conant) to take some shots they might not have wanted to take,” Camp said. “They were getting to the basket a little too easily in the first half, so we mixed things up.”

Sawyer, Jared Nagle and his younger brother, sophomore Jaiden Nagle (five points), were the only three Conant players who scored.

On the other side of the floor, starting senior forward Bragen Kinzer (two points, two rebounds), and juniors Davin Bohele (four points, three rebounds, steal), Mason Christensen (three points, steal) and Blake Grieco (two rebounds, assist) played well off the bench for Kearsarge.

The Cougars kept up their defensive intensity in the fourth quarter, not allowing Conant to score another field goal until the closing minutes of the game.

“That’s what we’ve been driving towards and working towards throughout the season. We’re at a point where they know what’s at stake and they want to go after the opportunities in front of them,” Camp said. “The defense is where we’re going to win and lose games, so we’ve got to lock in and they did. We need to play our best basketball in late February now to continue what we want to do.”

Conant eliminated Kearsarge in last year’s semifinals, 35-30, and the Cougars want to make it back to the final four. And then some.

Kearsarge next hosts No. 6 Gilford (14-5) in the quarterfinals on Friday night.

No. 4 Campbell 52No. 13 Hopkinton 48

The Hawks (7-10) hung in there against one of D-III’s best programs, but fell just short in Tuesday night’s preliminary round game on the road in Litchfield.

Senior Chase Lawler and junior Ben Normand both scored 14 points, while freshman Tommy Dwyer added eight and senior Noah Aframe chipped in six for Hopkinton.

Campbell (16-2) was led by 18 points and 10 rebounds from Logan Rice and 11 points and eight rebounds from Jack Breton.