Nervous. Stunned. Trailing. Desperate. Heartbroken.
The Conant girls’ basketball team was all that and more for the first time in three years Sunday, as the No. 6 Monadnock Huskies upset the No. 1 undefeated Orioles 50-31 in the NHIAA Division III championship game at Keene State College.
The loss snapped Conant’s 58-game win streak which started in 2020 after the Orioles’ last loss in the 2019 semifinals against Fall Mountain. Over that run, Conant seemed nearly untouchable, with only a handful of close games, three Final Four appearances and two championships. But on Sunday afternoon, the Huskies were bent on an upset from the tip, jumping out to a quick lead and putting the Orioles in unfamiliar territory.
“We were in an area where we haven’t been before in too many games over the 58-win streak,” Conant head coach Brian Troy said. “It’s just the way it goes; it’s sad, and it stinks and you feel a lot of heartbreak for the girls, but it’s just the way it goes sometimes.”
Monadnock, the only team to give Conant a game this season in a 43-42 Oriole victory in Swanzey three weeks prior, knew they had nothing to lose and a good a shot as anyone to pull off an underdog upset against the mighty juggernaut.
“We came in knowing we’re the underdogs,” said Husky senior Grace Furze (18 points, 11 rebounds). “All the pressure was going to be on them. We just had to come out relaxed, play relaxed. It was the last game, regardless. We were just going to put it all out there.”
Monadnock set the tone early on, starting with a first-quarter 7-0 run that put the Huskies in position to grab a 19-9 halftime lead. After a three and a two from sophomore Bella Hart, Conant went cold – ice cold. The Orioles shot just 4-32 (12.5%) from the floor in the first half.
“We just weren’t finishing, weren’t hitting shots,” said senior captain Teagan Kirby. “And when it really comes down to it, it’s the little things. They reached theirs and we didn’t.”
Monadnock did well to slow down Division III regular-season scoring leader Emma Tenters in their previous matchup, and she had another off game Sunday, shooting 4-19 from the floor for eight points as she, Kirby (1-11, two points) and Brynn Rautiola (4-15, eight points) struggled to hit shots. The Orioles didn’t make another three after Hart’s in the first quarter.
Monadnock, meanwhile, was hot from the arc, finishing 7-19 (36.8%). And while Conant was able to cut into the lead in the third and fourth quarters with a 10-0 run sparked by a couple of Rautiola buckets and a Tenters buzzerbeater, the Huskies just kept hitting. Conant had the lead cut to eight when Kirby lost the ball on a high dribble and was called for a travel; Monadnock, despite their lead, fired up yet another three, and it was a dagger, as the game never got closer than that again.
“We know we’re a third-quarter team,” said senior captain Mylie Aho. “We’re always looking forward to the third quarter because we know we always come out strong. So we did, and they kept hitting their threes, and I think it just got in our head.”
The Orioles finished with no players in double figures and their lowest scoring output of the season. Monadnock had three with 10 or more: Furze, Grace LeClair (11 points) and Shaylee Branon (11 points).
It was the final game of an incredible run for seniors Kendall Chamberlain, Bella Hayes, Aho, Kirby and captain Regan Despres, who could only watch from the bench after tearing her ACL in the opening minutes of the Orioles’ playoff opener.
“We’ve been preparing for this game all season,” Despres said. “It just sucks that it’s like that, it sucks that I couldn’t be on the floor, but at the end of the day, we worked so hard, you have to acknowledge that, how hard we’ve worked. 58-game streak, hard to beat. It’s hard to do. I’m just so proud of all the girls.”
“There’s something special about this team,” Kirby said. “We’re just like family. We love each other and I don’t think I’ve ever been on a team like this and definitely one that I’m thankful for to end on my senior year.”
“It’s a special team,” Aho said. “I love this team – they’re family to me. And we did a lot. We made history, and I couldn’t be more proud of this team. I had a really great four years. I mean, two state championships, I was there three times, been to the Final Four all four years – it’s been great. I love this team.”
For the underclassmen, it was the first time they’d ever lost a game in a Conant uniform.
“It’s tough,” said the junior Rautiola, who hadn’t lost a game since she was an eighth-grader. “Especially with a team like this, we had such a special group, and it’s heartbreaking, but we’ll get after it next year – we’ll be back.”