HOOKSETT – The girls’ basketball teams at Newfound Regional and Conant High School have plenty of stark differences.
For one, going into Tuesday night’s Division III semifinal at Southern New Hampshire University, the fourth-seeded Orioles were in search of their seventh championship game appearance since 2004. No. 1 Newfound, which entered the night with a perfect 20-0 record, was looking for just its third title game berth since 1988.
A buzzer-beater by Meghan Wheeler helped Conant (18-3) reach the championship game yet again, beating Newfound, 52-50.
It also established some common ground with the Bears (20-1).
The Orioles came into last year’s semifinal as a No. 1 seed, touting an undefeated record before falling to No. 4 Laconia and ending what was supposed to be a perfect season in heartbreaking fashion.
“We had nothing to lose coming in,” said Wheeler, who led all scorers with 16 points and dished seven assists. “This was an undefeated team and we, if anyone, know that a four-seed can beat an undefeated one-seed. Because that obviously happened to us last year and we were still salty about that.”
Those in the Conant locker room knew exactly how the girls in Newfound’s locker room were feeling after coughing up an eight-point lead with 2:45 left in the fourth quarter.
“Unfortunately, we had a nice lead and I think the inexperience started to show. We got rattled at the end and they didn’t get rattled at the end,” said Newfound Coach Karri Patterson as she stood in disbelief on the sideline, still trying to dissect what happened with her assistants. “I think sometimes it’s easier to come back than it is to hold the lead. That’s what happens with inexperience.”
When the Bears were searching for a steady hand to calm things down, their senior captain was on the bench nursing an injured left wrist.
“It’s probably the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced,” said Amanda Johnston, who finished with nine points and six rebounds before leaving the game with 3:26 left in the third quarter. “What’s probably more painful is seeing my team lose afterward when I had to come out and knowing I couldn’t go back in to help at all. … It got kind of helter-skelter out there and we were just throwing the ball all over the place.”
Johnston’s wrist was wrapped with ice and an ACE bandage outside the locker room following the game. She played for three minutes in the fourth quarter but the pain was too much.
Newfound still felt good, though, and went on an 11-3 run to end the third quarter and take a 38-29 lead going into the fourth. But the Bears turned the ball over seven times in the final frame and 19 times altogether, leading to 26 points for Conant, which only committed 11 turnovers.
“Amanda getting hurt was key. Amanda not being able to grab onto a ball, not being able to catch a ball, who knows what she did to her wrist, but that was kind of the key to the turning point in our game. She’s the next go-to player on our team with the ball and with her sitting on the bench, that hurt us,” Patterson said. “I think that’s what killed us.”
The possession arrow also helped put the nail in Newfound’s coffin. After a scrum for a loose ball in the final seconds with the game tied at 50-all, a jump ball was called and possession awarded to the Orioles with 1.9 seconds left on the clock.
“Basically what I said was ‘don’t allow the lob inside,’ ” Patterson said of the final possession.
“Make sure you know where (Wheeler) is and then make sure that you know she’s going to drive and be ready to take away that penetration. That didn’t happen. I thought for sure with only 1.9 seconds left they’d go for the lob inside and they didn’t. They went to the weak side. That was a long 1.9 seconds.”
The Bears tried to take solace in the things they did accomplish this season as opposed to the one thing they didn’t.
“It’s not like you weren’t in the game. We brought them to the last second. Basically, if that jump ball goes our way, we probably would’ve gone into overtime,” Patterson said. “But they got the jump ball and it is what it is.”
Johnston added, “Everything we’ve done this season, none of that should be taken away from us because of this game. We were in the game until the very last buzzer and that’s all that matters.”
Still, it hurts and there were no other words Johnston could find afterward to describe the feeling besides, “Oh God, it sucks more than losing in any other way.”
But Savanna Bony, a junior who finished with nine points, had a unifying message for her young teammates afterward: “We’ll be back next year.”
And next year, Newfound hopes to finish the job.
Conant will play Monadnock in the championship game on Saturday. The Huskies, who will make their first championship game appearance since 1990, beat Prospect Mountain, 54-45, in four overtimes. … Newfound’s Ashlee Dukette led the team with 12 points and 18 rebounds, while Alexis Vantil finished with eight points and 10 rebounds, and Gracie Schilling scored seven points.