Monadnock and Conant fought all the way to the end of their NHIAA Division III tournament game in Jaffrey Monday night, and in the end, the Orioles’ superior composure carried them to a 54-48 win over the Huskies.
“That’s a really good basketball team,” Conant coach Eric Saucier said of Monadnock. “I mean, they beat us three times this season. It is what it is. But when it comes to playoffs, one game, anything could happen.”
The Orioles and Huskies split their first two matchups of the year; Monadnock won another two games over Conant last week, though both of those games came after the playoff matchup was set and neither team dug very deep into their bag of tricks. But as usual, when it comes to the tournament, you can throw the regular season results right out the window.
Conant came out more confident and aggressive than in their previous matchups with Monadnock, Husky coach Jim Hill said after the game. It showed in the first quarter, where Conant raced out to a 17-8 lead capped off by a Manny Hodgson (10 points) double-clutch bank shot buzzerbeater three.
The Orioles weren’t able to make the most of their limited scoring opportunities in the second quarter, while Monadnock’s Kevin Putnam scored all nine of his points in the quarter to lead a scoring charge that had the Huskies up by two at the half.
It seemed almost a shame to burn a matchup between preseason darlings Monadnock and the most storied program in the division, Conant, but regardless of what round it was, the game did not disappoint.
“It was a good back-and-forth game,” Hill said.
Conant’s Jacson Cross (five points) came out of the half a man possessed, aggressively attacking the hoop and setting the Huskies on their heels. The two teams traded hoops until Conant senior Hayden Ketola (seven points) scored through a foul to knot things at 34 in the third with two minutes left.
That’s when Monadnock senior Jake Kidney came alive.
“He’s a winner,” Hill said. “He played his heart out.”
Kidney (game-high 21 points) dropped in a contested finger roll to close the third and then scored two more buckets in a row to open the fourth, and the Huskies pulled out to a six-point lead with two-and-a-half minutes left. Hill told his boys to slow the game down, milk the clock and above all else, don’t shoot any three-pointers.
“The thing that gets me is all of our wins against Conant this year and our wins against Mascenic were almost the same exact situation,” Hill said. “We’re up six or eight with two or three minutes ago. And we’ve been able to execute by not shooting.”
But sure enough, the Huskies launched a three from the corner and missed it, and the Orioles got threes from Malique Motuzas (eight points) and Cross to tie it at 45. Monadnock turned the ball over, and once it found its way to steady senior Colson Seppala, it was all over but the free throws. Seppala (team-high 20 points) put in the go-ahead layup and then went 5-8 from the line to keep Conant in the lead.
Coach Saucier’s young team showed the maturity gained over the course of the season, rising to the occasion in the final minutes where just a few weeks ago, they might have faltered.
“It’s been reversed,” Saucier said. “We’ve had leads and then we give it away. Tonight, for some reason, we were behind and we were able to battle back. Our motto is just keep playing hard and see what happens. You play hard, you always get a chance. These guys, to their credit, they never gave up. There were a lot of times tonight where we could’ve put our head down and stopped playing and they didn’t, they battled and I’m so proud.”
Conant must now travel to play at a tough, sizable Hopkinton Hawks team Wednesday night, and after the toll the physical Huskies took Monday night, the Orioles might be limping up Route 9 for the game.
“That’s another good basketball team,” Saucier said, “and our guys are beat up right now. It took a lot to get this win. So they’ve got to find a way mentally to come back on Wednesday, because our goal isn’t just to win [tonight] – we want to advance and we want to be at, probably Mascenic, on Saturday. So it’s going to take an even bigger effort – we’ll see how tough we are.”
ConVal 90, John Stark 56
Nearly every Cougar got on the board Tuesday night as defending co-champion ConVal routed John Stark on the road to open the NHIAA Division II tournament.
ConVal head coach Leo Gershgorin said that the Cougars’ full-court press was the key to their early lead.
Senior captain Wyatt Davis led ConVal with 19 points as 10 out of 12 Cougars scored in the blowout. Also in double figures were Austin Knight (16), Joe Gutwein (14), Christian Buffum (11) and Isaiah Michaels (10).
“Patience on offense and great ball movement created high-percentage opportunities all game,” Gershgorin said.
ConVal (6-4) advances to play at Lebanon Thursday at 7 p.m. in the prelim round. Lebanon (11-0) was perfect in the regular season behind strong play from junior guard Braeden Falzarano and senior forward Calvin Bates.
Mount Royal 76, Wilton-Lyndeborough 52
The Warriors end their season without a win after falling on the road at Mount Royal to open the Division IV playoffs Monday night.
WLC was down just five entering the fourth quarter, where “the wheels fell off,” head coach Wiley Billings said.
The Warriors graduate Kyler Tremblay, Joseph Ntengeri, Paul VanBlarigan and JJ LeBla