ConVal looked like an unstoppable force on the basketball court Friday night — at least for the first two and a half quarters, anyway.
“They played well,” said head coach Kevin Proctor. “A lot of fun watching them get up and run. I was very happy with how they played up until a certain point in that third quarter.”
At first, the Cougars were clicking on all cylinders. The “Big Three” senior forwards Griffin Werth, Isaac Bacon and Liam Baldwin were scoring from all over the floor. Senior point guard Cam Buffum was raining threes, and his sophomore backcourt mates Ben Henry and Max Richard were hitting too. Manny Bowman and Tim Burgess were getting buckets off the bench — a sure sign that everything was working for ConVal. And despite a desparation three-point heave for Kingswood that somehow went down to end the half, ConVal had what looked like a comfortable 45-36 lead going into the break.
“The reason why I think we were effective early on was that we were getting the ball into the places we needed to get it,” Proctor said. “We needed to get it inside to those big guys, and they were able to kick it out for those open looks.”
That translated into some good first-half scoring. Buffum had put in 11, with three threes, by halftime. Werth had 14 and Baldwin seven.
Even at the beginning of the third, ConVal was looking sharp, and the Cougars were up 13. Then, the floodgates opened. Kingswood started to score and cut into the lead, and ConVal fell into some bad habits. The inside-outside game turned into a pure perimeter affair. Sure ballhandling turned into turnovers. Scoring dried up and defense disappeared.
“The way we took care of the ball in the fourth quarter, and our defense, it was just really bad,” Proctor said. “We threw that ball around, shot selection was brutal.”
Happy to shoot from the outside, ConVal didn’t get a single point from its backcourt in the second half. Meanwhile, Kingswood’s duo of Patrick Meyers (31 points) and Nick Duntley (23 points) exploded for 36 second-half points as the Knights put up an incredible 35-point fourth quarter.
The Cougars saw their lead evaporate, eerily reminiscent of last year’s Achilles heel, closing out games. However, ConVal was able to grab the lead again — albeit briefly. After a Baldwin and-one, ConVal was back on top, and they had the ball with a 74-70 lead when Werth got the ball in the open court and drove to the hoop. Kingswood’s Will Trevel jumped in his way and as Werth went up, the two collided and tangled, and the whistle blew. In the scrum, Werth appeared to toss the ball down onto the sprawling Knight, and he was handed a technical foul.
Kingswood converted, and finished the game on a 14-2 run to win it 84-76.
“It’s a long season,” Proctor said. “It’s the first game. It’s unfortunate. It would have been a great way to start, it we had just been able to keep that momentum going. It’s too early to hang our heads. We’ve got a lot of basketball to play.”
Werth finished with a team-high 21; Baldwin put in 18 and Bacon scored 16 before fouling out.
ConVal (0-1) traveled to Mascenic (3-0) Monday night after press time. They host Monadnock (2-1) Thursday night at 6:30 p.m.
Sports Editor Ben Conant can be reached at 924-7172, ext. 226, or bconant@ledgertranscript.com.