The ConVal girls’ basketball team was tantalizingly close to its first win since February 2023, but a late surge from visiting Sanborn turned Monday’s home opener sour in the final minutes.

Tied at just 22 with three minutes left in the game, the low-scoring affair looked like a next-basket-wins scenario, and it turned out to be, as a Maya Thompson and-one drive gave the Indians the lead for good.

“In these low-scoring games, every possession that they do score is very valuable, very important,” said head coach Kyle Murray after the game.

Things started out promising for the Cougars (0-2), as 3-pointers from Ava Van Horn and Savannah McCarthy had them up two at the half, and a pair of Colby Harris paint buckets pushed their lead to 18-15 in the third.

But the lid on the hoop slid open only briefly, and ConVal couldn’t buy a basket from that point forward. It was not for lack of point-blank chances; no Cougars finished in double figures, and a couple more bunnies could have made the difference.

“I think we’re going to shoot a better percentage,” Murray said. “We do have some good 3-point shooters. We have some good inside players. So I think we’re going to shoot the ball well in other games – we haven’t had it yet.”

Sanborn exploded for 13 points in the fourth quarter and pulled away to a 32-24 win. Maya Thompson (13 points) and Ashton DiRienzo (11 points) led the Indians, while Healey (seven points) and Van Horn (seven points) were the top scorers for ConVal. Harris (four points), McCarthy (four points) and Emma O’Brien rounded out the scoring for the Cougars.

It was a frustrating loss in a frustrating string of them for ConVal, as they’ve dropped 25 straight since winning at Kingswood on Feb. 10, 2023. The streak has been part of a long learning process for Murray’s young ConVal team, which has not had a senior on the roster since 2023. As such, it’s been younger players who have stepped into leadership roles; junior Brielle Proctor and the sophomore Healey are the team’s captains this year, leading by example with their defensive intensity and never-say-die attitudes.

“We have athletes that can run,” Murray said. “We do have a lot of good defensive principles; the defenders play hard and they’re smart defenders. So I think we can really build on that by maintaining good defensive possessions all the way through the possession. We can run the ball harder. We can space a little bit better. All those things are going to come. We’ve only played two games and haven’t had a lot of practice time. So we’re still figuring it out.”

ConVal is at Bishop Brady on Friday.