The Cougars waved goodbye to the Cave in style Friday night with a wire-to-wire playoff win over Sanborn to earn a trip to the NHIAA Division II semifinals.
“It’s exciting,” head coach Jay Starr said after the 70-66 ConVal win. “It’s exciting for the guys. These are the goals we set from the beginning of the year...To get to the final four was definitely our goal. So we’re happy to be there.”
It was a victory typical of this ConVal team: well-balanced, defensive-minded, and gutsy. The No. 3 Cougars put the heat on No. 6 Sanborn in the second quarter, where they outscored the Indians 24-16 on some quick energy from sixth-man Malachi Page, who entered and scored three hoops plus an and-one, and from senior Christian Buffum, who got hot and scored 10 of his 14 in the second.
“[We had] more ball movement and got open cuts and shots,” Buffum said. “I realized that I got by my guy once, so I tried to do it over and over again – and it worked.”
ConVal went into the half leading 41-30 before giving a little ground to Sanborn in the third; the Cougars opened the fourth on an 8-0 run to go up 61-48 and force an Indian timeout with 5:45 remaining. Sanborn was on the ropes, and all ConVal had to do was deliver the knockout blow.
The Indians had other ideas, however. Sparked by junior guard Jared Khalil, Sanborn roared right back into the game.
Down eight, Khalil was fouled shooting a three, which he hit and turned into a four-point play; just minutes later, he was fouled shooting another three, and Sanborn was back.
“Jared Khalil is a hell of a player,” Buffum said. “Draws those fouls and just keeps them right back in the game.”
ConVal missed a couple free throws down the stretch and then turned the ball over with 15 second left, giving the ball back to Khalil with just a 68-66 lead. Khalil drove the length of the floor and ran Austin Knight into a screen, but Owen McGuire picked him up on the switch and forced a shot off the backboard. From there, all ConVal needed was some Knight free throws to seal the deal, survive, and advance.
“It’s a learning curve,” Buffum said. “Next time we’ve just got to secure the ball better.”
After Tuesday’s blowout of Kingswood to open the playoffs, a close game down the stretch with some correctable errors might have been just what ConVal needed to gain that clutch-moment experience ahead of the final four.
“You don’t learn until you really make a big mistake,” Starr said, “and we made those big mistakes and still survived and we’re still alive. So I think those are some valuable lessons that are really important and we will move forward with them.”
Buffum and McGuire tied for the team high with 14 points each; Knight had 13, Page had 11 and Khalil led all scorers with 19.
ConVal now heads to Oyster River on Tuesday for what will be their third game against No. 2 Pelham, who beat the Cougars soundly in Pelham early in the year before losing by 15 in Peterborough in the rematch.
“They smoked us over in Pelham and I think we learned a lot of things from that,” Starr said. “We also learned a lot of things here when we played them, but I think they'll play a lot better than that up there. So it's going be a battle for sure.”
Tuesday’s other semifinal features No. 1 Souhegan vs. No. 4 Lebanon.
GIRLS’ BASKETBALLConant finishes undefeated, takes No. 1 seed
The Conant girls’ basketball team completed its third straight undefeated season with a 63-32 win over Newport Friday on senior night.
“Remarkable that we were able to finish the regular season 18-0,” said head coach Brian Troy. “These girls earned it.”
Junior Emma Tenters scored a game-high 19 points; junior Brynn Rautiola had 17; senior Teagan Kirby had 10 and senior Mylie Aho had nine. Tenters (16.4 ppg) finished the season as Division III’s top scorer; Rautiola (15.2 ppg) was third.
On Thursday, the Orioles beat Hopkinton 61-33 behind 17 from Tenters and 10 from Rautiola.
Conant (18-0) is the the top seed in the Division III tournament, which begins Wednesday. The Orioles have a first-round bye and will host the winner of No. 8 St. Thomas Aquinas and No. 9 Newfound Saturday at 7 p.m.
“We’ll be ready for the playoffs and are still hungry for more,” Troy said.
Mascenic 32,
Hillsboro-Deering 28
The Vikings finished their season Friday night in the same place their road ended last winter, at Hillsboro-Deering. But unlike last year’s playoff loss and this season’s home loss, Mascenic got revenge on the Hillcats and finished out the year with a win.
“Girls executed our gameplan well,” said head coach Troy Shaw. “Played hard putting together a whole team effort for the season finale win.”
Lexis Vautour led Mascenic with 11 points; Skye Lambert scored 10 and Kenzie Cormier had eight.
It was the final game for Shaw’s daughter, senior Olivia Shaw.
BOYS’ BASKETBALLMascenic 56,
Hillsboro-Deering 48
Joe Cocozella led the Vikings with 19 points and Blaine Krook added 14 as Mascenic snapped its six-game losing streak for a win in the regular-season finale.
Mascenic (7-11) is the No. 14 seed in the Division III tournament and will open on the road at No. 3 Campbell Tuesday evening.
Conant 57, Newport 22
The Orioles finished the season over .500 and are on a three-game win streak heading into the playoffs after beating Newport on the road Friday to finish at 10-8.
It was a total team effort in the Conant win, with three players – Jacson Cross (11 points), Garrett Somero (10 points) and Ben Sawyer (10 points) – in double figures, and two more – Derrick DeWees (eight points) and Malique Motuzas (seven points) – on the verge.
Conant is seeded 12th in Division III and headed for a road playoff game at No. 5 White Mountains Tuesday night.