If you saw a tall man soaked from head to toe shopping in Shaw’s Friday night, don’t worry. It was just ConVal boys’ basketball coach Jay Starr, who earned a Gatorade bucket bath after his Cougars won big on senior night, getting revenge for their earlier loss at Pelham with a 74-59 victory over one of Division II’s top contenders.
The Cougar Cave was rowdy from the start, as the ConVal junior varsity team went into overtime before snapping Pelham’s 48-game JV win streak, whipping the crowd up to a boiling point before the varsity even touched the floor. And it was rowdy at the end, when Noah Stewart and Christian Buffum toted the Cougars’ water supply up to the locker room and doused their first-year head coach.
“We’re pumped, we’re excited,” said senior captain Owen Michaels, who finished with 13 points. “We executed our game plan one hundred percent. Moving forward, we’re definitely going to keep this momentum going with us – just thrive off of it for sure.”
Pelham came into the game at 12-1, with a 13-point win over the Cougars 10 days before. With shifty guard Jake McGlinchey, a Player of the Year frontrunner at 17.3 ppg, running the show, the Pythons are tough to beat; they’d only lost once, on Monday, to 14-1 Souhegan. The game was the perfect measuring stick for the Cougars: a win against Pelham would they’d improved and could potentially be poised for a playoff run, while a loss would cast serious doubts on their postseason potential.
After the JV frenzy and some tearful intros for the team’s nine seniors, ConVal was hyped and ready to go. The Cougars came out hot with a 22-point first quarter, but Michaels picked up two quick fouls, sat, and then picked up a third, while Buffum, frustrated by the blanketing defense Pelham focused on him, swiped his way to three first-half fouls of his own, and without those two pieces, the offense stagnated in the second quarter, and the Cougars were up just 34-32 at the half.
As usual, it was ConVal’s defense that put them in position to win. Senior Malachi Page set the tone by taking a pair of first-half charges, and after Pelham’s Jake Travis scored on a couple of open back-cuts early on, the Cougars played near-flawless defense down to the final seconds.
Michaels, Austin Knight (10 points), Joe Gutwein (20) and Owen McGuire (14) dominated the second half and ran ConVal’s slim halftime lead up to 20-plus points.
It was the second blowout win in as many days for ConVal, who’d taken care of Manchester West 75-57 Thursday night in a matchup that featured Starr, the former Mascenic coach, against John Langlois, who was tapped as Starr’s replacement before stepping down during the Vikings’ 2019-20 championship season.
ConVal forced West into turnover after turnover and ran away with it in transition, throwing outlets and alley-oops leading to big games from Gutwein (18 points), Knight (15), Michaels (13), McGuire (12) and Page (10).
ConVal is now 14-2, with two road games remaining: Tuesday at Bishop Brady (8-5) and Friday at Lebanon (12-1). The Cougars are third in the division behind Lebanon and No. 1 Souhegan (14-1); Souhegan’s only loss was to Lebanon, and Lebanon’s only loss was to Pembroke to open the season.
“For the standings, and home court advantage in playoffs, this game was really big,” Michaels said.
After the flying water settled in the ConVal locker room Friday night, Buffum, promising more celebrations to come down the road, dug out the team’s wrestling championship belt – awarded to a new player after each game based on their effort and performance – and tossed it over to the soaking Starr, honoring the coach who’d brought them to this jubilant state.
Belt in hand, all Starr needed now was a dry pair of pants.
Undefeated Conant sets program record
The Conant girls’ basketball team is on a 50-game winning streak spanning three seasons and showing no signs of slowing down.
The Orioles dispatched another of Division III’s supposed best with ease on Wednesday night, beating Kearsarge 69-36 behind a 17-point triple-double from Teagan Kirby and a 20-point game from Emma Tenters, DIII’s top scorer at 18.2 ppg.
With that win, Conant surpassed the 2015-16 Oriole girls’ program-record 48-game win streak.
Conant handled Campbell at home Friday night, choking out the Cougars with a 64-21 defensive lockdown that saw the visitors held scoreless in the fourth quarter.
Senior Mylie Aho lead all scorers with 17 points; Tenters had 15 and Kirby 10.
Conant (12-0) was scheduled to play at Mascenic Monday night after press time and then host Hillsboro-Deering Wednesday and Hopkinton Friday.
ConVal takes two of three
Just when it seemed like the Cougars couldn’t get more shorthanded, COVID finally caught up with head coach and Souhegan teacher Kevin Proctor, who was relegated to watching the livestreams as assistant coach Kyle Murray took the reigns. The game results were mostly positive, too; ConVal lost to Bow 45-27 on Wednesday but then beat Timberlane 43-32 on Thursday and finished up with a 60-39 win over Manchester West Sunday.
Abby Rodenhiser scored 10 against Bow; Morgan Bemont had 14 against Timberlane and then led with 20 against West, where Maddy Faber added 10.
ConVal (6-9) hosts Bishop Brady Tuesday.
Campbell 49, Conant 29
Campbell’s Brody Mills went off for 30 points as the Orioles’ scoring woes continued in their road loss Friday night.
Senior Garrett Somero was Conant’s bright spot with a team-high 18.
Conant (5-7) was set to host Mascenic Monday night and then play at Hillsboro-Deering Wednesday and Hopkinton Friday.
Mascenic bounces back, and comes up short
Mascenic bounced back from Tuesday night’s loss by beating Somersworth on the road Wednesday and then lost one at the buzzer to Belmont Friday.
The Vikings got 15 points from Joe Cocozella and 11 from Blaine Krook Wednesday to take the 42-40 win over the Hilltoppers.
Mascenic had two chances to take the lead in the final minute against Belmont Friday night, but turned it over and then missed a buzzerbeater, ending up a point short, 42-41, against the visiting Raiders. Joe Cocozella had a team-high 19 points.
The Vikings (6-6) were set to play at Conant Monday night and at Monadnock Wednesday.
ConVal-Conant drops two
The Griffins lost 8-0 to Bishop Guertin to start their action last week and then lost 5-1 to a much improved Kingswood team Sunday afternoon.
Aubrey Niemela scored ConVal-Conant’s lone goal of the week at Kingswood.
Francesca Ketola made 54 saves against Bishop Guertin.
ConVal-Conant (1-10) hosts Kingswood Wednesday.
Gonyea improves in final home meet
Conant’s Heather Gonyea was third in the vault and fourth i n the all-around as she competed in her final home meet of the year alongside Keene at the Keene Family YMCA Friday evening.
Gonyea scored a 7.95 on the vault and a 29.5 in the all-around, competing against Bishop Guertin and Memorial.
The Blackbirds and Oriole will compete once more, Feb. 7 at Goffstown, before heading to the state championship meet at A2 Gym and Cheer in Salem Feb. 12.
Cougars race against Division I schools
ConVal’s regular season results may look a bit skewed this winter, as Crotched Mountain’s new early week closure schedule pushed the Cougars’ races to Friday nights and forced them to combine competition with Division I schools. As such, usual runaway winner Molly Dishong took second in Friday night’s GS race in 52.14, just behind winner Savanah Shannon of Concord (51.32).
The ConVal girls finished fourth as a team, behind Concord, Souhegan and Keene.
Also scoring for ConVal were Jennifer Hopkins (10th, 57.20), Eva McCulloch (20th) and Caitlin Beal (21st).
The ConVal boys also finished fourth, behind Bow, Souhegan and Goffstown. Top scorers for the Cougars were Garrett Rousseau (7th, 53.29), Ben Fraley (ninth, 54.50), Owen Kotula (17th) and Fletcher Maggs (36th).
ConVal hosts a dual GS meet Friday at 4 p.m. at Crotched Mountain.
Cougars race at Gunstock
The ConVal Nordic ski team traveled to Gunstock for a race Wednesday.
Eva Calcutt was the top finisher for the Cougars, taking fourth in the girls’ race in 16:05. Also finishing for the ConVal girls: Holland Calcutt (14th), Gwen Inglis (29th) and Laura Phillips (48th).
Nathan Klonel was ConVal’s best in the boys’ race, finishing 40th in 17:34. Also finishing for the ConVal boys: Avery Pope (43rd), Kermit Pope (57th), and Samuel Rousseau (85th).
The Cougars return to action Wednesday at Lebanon.