Conant High School’s first Hoops for Hunger basketball fundraiser Saturday night raised around $3,000 and a slew of canned goods for local families in need. But on the court, no one was hungrier than senior forward Emma Tenters, as she ate up the visiting Golden Eagles of Gilford and finished the night with dessert – a piece of cake to celebrate her 1,000th career point.

Tenters needed just seven points – “the elephant in the room” – to reach 1,000, and after a pair of spin moves and a couple free throws, she chased down a fast-break rebound, put the ball back up, and hit the milestone. It’s an individual achievement, but you wouldn’t have known it watching the Orioles celebrate, teammates smiling wide and leaping up and down as they mobbed their senior co-captain at midcourt.

“We have such a great atmosphere here,” Tenters said. “We’re literally a family – everybody says “family on three,” but this group is such a family. All four years I’ve played here, every single person, everyone supports you. Everybody wants each other to succeed and we win together as a team. This personal milestone for me, it shows that all of us have contributed to it. I wouldn’t have scored a thousand without these people playing with me and playing together and learning from people that I’ve learned from. It’s really for the whole team.”

The undefeated Orioles (11-0) weren’t winning the game when Tenters dropped her 1,000th; the big doubleheader and impending milestone had everyone a little on edge, and Conant scored just six points in the first quarter.

“Going into the game we were focused, but obviously you can’t tune it out,” Tenters said. But once she hit her mark, the floodgates opened and the defense locked in. Conant allowed just three points in the third quarter and nine total in the second half to run away with a 54-33 win.

“We figured it out in the second half,” Conant head coach Brian Troy said, “and eventually we broke down the zone pretty well. So I was proud that we were able to come back and show the true character of our team. I’m very proud of all the girls – a lot of players stepped up.”

Aside from Tenters, who finished with 23, Conant got another 22 from senior co-captain Brynn Rautiola, who got aggressive in the second half and blew by every defender she faced; junior Bella Hart added a pair of fourth-quarter threes, and senior co-captain Adrienne Kennedy plunked a three-pointer as well.

Conant is now 69-1 over the past four seasons, their only loss coming in last year’s finals against Monadnock. The Orioles have beaten Monadnock twice this year by a combined 38 points; without taking any games for granted, Conant’s biggest remaining tests are games at Stevens (9-1) Saturday and at Concord Christian (9-1) on Feb. 6. The Orioles beat Stevens earlier in the year - albeit without one of the Cardinals’ top players, Alyssa Paquette; they’ve never played Concord Christian, last year’s Division IV champions who’ve now moved up to Division III.

Troy has seen his share of 1,000-point scorers, most recently Elizabeth Gonyea, the former Player of the Year turned college hooper who was in attendance Saturday to hand Tenters a bouquet. Troy said what the 1,000-point scorers all seem to have in common is their drive.

“They just have a hunger,” Troy said, “and they all have a knack for scoring and scoring in big moments, Liz as well as Emma – they’ve come up with huge scoring plays, and obviously it all adds up, game by game. I’m just really proud of Emma, for her to eclipse that goal. That’s a goal that she set out to get her freshman year. It’s important for players like that, and she really has done a good job to earn her 1,000 points, too. It’s just not her talent. She’s really got the work ethic to back it up.”

BOYS’ BASKETBALL

Gilford 52, Conant 48 (OT)

Undefeated Gilford got quite a scare from the Conant boys on Saturday night, as the Orioles led the Golden Eagles in the second half before ultimately falling in overtime.

“Missed opportunity,” Conant head coach Eric Saucier said. “That's why I told the boys in the locker room – you've got to learn from this because you got a chance, you gave yourself a really good chance. People are gonna tell you ‘hey, great job tonight’ and all that stuff. You can accept it. I'm not mad at you. Your effort was great, but I am frustrated because we had a really good chance.”

Gilford (10-0) has only three losses in the past three-and-a-half years to go along with three championships (one shared with Mascenic), but Conant (8-4) came as close as anybody has Saturday. The Orioles, met with the Eagles’ superior size, were outmatched in the paint by senior point-center Jalen Reese (22 points), but stayed even and pulled ahead briefly in the second half. Senior Lane LeClair gave the Orioles a huge boost, scoring 17 points with a handful of baseline jumpers and a big three-pointer; Jared Nagle had three threes and 13 points, and Jordan Nagle had 10, including an explosive fast-break dunk off a steal. 

Gilford, up two points with 1:30 left, tried to run out the clock, but eventually turned the ball over, and a LeClair offensive rebound and putback with 48.7 seconds left tied the game and sent it to overtime.

There, the Eagles learned from their mistake; up two again, they went to Reese in the paint and put the game away, as he scored all six of Gilford’s overtime points. 

“We're getting better, you know?” Saucier said. “I think we need to make better choices at the end of the games. But being young, we're learning that. Our goal is to get better every day, and we definitely got better today.”

Conant is at Belmont Tuesday and then travels to Gilford for a rematch on Thursday night. 

INDOOR TRACK

Members of ConVal’s boys’ and girls’ indoor track teams competed at UNH on January 21. Sophomore William Simard won the 1,500-meter run in 4:25.83, and junior Tasha MacNeil finished third in the 55-meter dash at 7.74 seconds and fourth in the long jump at 14’6.25”.

Both teams fielded a 4x160 relay. The girls’ team of MacNeil, senior Sophia Hatmaker, juniors Aida Davis and Lucille White finished 11th in 1:40.88. The boys’ team of seniors Ryan Charron and Nathaniel Mao, and freshmen Cole Bouchard and Mason Deschenes finished in 1:29.25. Final places for the boys relay event were not yet compiled at press time.

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