It looked like the same old story for the ConVal boys on Friday night. Up five at halftime in their home gym, the Cougars struggled in the third quarter and let Hanover build a commanding lead. But this time, ConVal battled back and turned the adversity into a come-from-behind win.
“We came out flat in the third, and we’ve kind of done that,” said ConVal head coach Kevin Proctor. “That’s not a good trend to have.”
In fact, the Cougars were up 25-20 going into the break, on 15 first-half points by senior guard Cam Buffum. But Hanover came out on a 17-2 run to open the third and take over the game. Proctor threw a number of different defenses at the Marauders, but guard Benny Gantrish would have none of it, scoring 11 of his team-high 18 in the third. Frustrated, the Cougars buckled down, switched back to full-court man, and turned the tables.
“I think they just wanted it,” Proctor said. “They looked at the scoreboard and they knew it was there. I think they thought they were a better team, down deep, and realized that they really weren’t living up to the expectations of this particular game, and they played hard.”
The recipe for success in the fourth quarter meant going down low to Isaac Bacon, who got the Marauder bigs in foul trouble as he scored nine of his 13 points in the fourth.
“I don’t think they could stop Isaac, if we got it to him, without fouling, and that was what we had to do,” Proctor said.
All that work in the post got ConVal back to within two with 48 seconds left, when the Cougars swung the ball around and found Buffum at the top of the key. He buried a three-pointer to put ConVal up 49-48; Hanover wouldn’t score again and the final was 54-48 ConVal.
“I was excited as hell,” said Buffum of his big thre-pointer. “It was so surreal.”
It was ConVal’s first win at home in nearly two years.
ConVal (2-5) travels to Kingswood (4-4) Friday at 6:30 p.m.