Monadnock in town, the Pratt packed with pink-clad crazies – is there a better atmosphere for Conant basketball?

The Oriole girls sure looked happy in the Birds’ Nest Tuesday night, as they vanquished the visiting Huskies for their best win of the season to date.

“We all promised each other we were going to lock in tonight,” senior captain Hannah Manley said after Conant’s 50-44 win at Hoops for Hope, the annual fundraiser game that benefits area families who have been affected by cancer. “We’re going to lock in, we’re going to win this game. We’re going to go out there and we’re going to give it our all. It felt like home tonight. We were all playing, we had the crowd – it was awesome tonight.”

Manley, who’s currently second in Division III in scoring with 18.1 points per game, ran into foul trouble when she picked up her fourth in the third quarter, but had a tremendous game regardless, hitting a big 3-pointer to give Conant its first lead, 15-14, in the second period.

She then hit back-to-back from the top of the key in the third, where she scored 11 of her 19 points.

But even with the Orioles pushing the lead to 10 in the fourth quarter, the Huskies (9-3) never quit, as Bailey Soucia (12 points) made a pair of big steals down the stretch and helped Monadnock stay in it until the end.

“They’re an incredible team,” Conant senior captain Lola Hayes said. “Everyone thinks we’re the underdog, but we really proved ourselves tonight and really showed that we can compete with the higher-level teams. When they went on their runs, we really gathered together and stuck together. We wanted it more. We knew we wanted to win, so we put it all out there.”

Hayes was unstoppable going to the hoop, scoring a career- and game-high 20 points, all of which either came in the paint or at the free throw line.

“I really focused on driving, because I need to draw more fouls,” Hayes said. “I need to take advantage of my driving skills and my finish.”

Hayes scored 10 of her 20 in the fourth quarter, going 6-6 from the line.

The win moves the Orioles to 8-5, and more importantly, it shows the rest of the division that Conant could be for real. Coming into Tuesday night, the Orioles were 7-0 against teams under .500 but 0-5 against teams with winning records – not where a team wants to be come playoff time.

But after Tuesday’s win against top-five Monadnock, Conant might just be trending in the right direction. They’ll have their next big test on Friday night at 9-1 Fall Mountain.

“I feel like, finishing this game, we’re all ready,” Hayes said. “We can compete. We know we can compete, we know we’ve got the skills. We know what we need to do.”

“We’re just going to keep playing our game, and we’re not going to let other teams affect how we play, and we’ll let that carry us however far it takes us,” Manley said.