Conant boys basketball pulls away late to beat Campbell

JAFFREY – The Campbell and Conant high school boys basketball teams were playing for a lot Wednesday night, with the No. 2 seed in Division III tournament potentially on the line.

But with the Orioles lineup complete for the first time in nearly a month, Conant coach Eric Saucier was more concerned with getting his crew on the same page.

It didn’t take long for that to happen. After a back-and-forth first half, the Orioles were able to pull away early in the fourth quarter for a 61-46 win over the Cougars.

Eli Hodgson led Conant (15-2) with 22 points, including 13 for 13 from the free throw line, and Robert O’Brien added 14 points, with a couple of acrobatic layups in the second half that ignited the home crowd. As a team, the Orioles were 22 of 23 from the line, including 8 of 9 in the fourth quarter.

“Getting the win was a bonus,” Saucier said. “We still haven’t had all 12 in practice in a month. My only focus was just to get the guys ready to play. I want to be healthy for next Thursday (March 6). I didn’t even care if we dropped out of having two home games. If I have a healthy team, I know we’ll be all right because we can defend.”

The Orioles did that in the second half against the Cougars, specifically on Campbell big man Zach Bergeon, who finished with 22 points, but had just one field goal in the second half. Harrison Vedrani added nine points, but no one else had more than five for Campbell.

“We need balance from the other four players,” Campbell coach John Langlois said. “I thought we played really hard. I’m proud of my guys. This is a tough environment to come and play and they played their butts off. We were right there for three quarters, they hit some big shots and we didn’t.”

The game was tied at 13 at the end of the first quarter, and at 25 at halftime. Conant got out to a 30-27 lead to open the third, but Campbell scored four straight to take a 31-30 lead with 4:25 left in the quarter.

Conant answered with a 9-0 run to take the largest lead for either team to that point, but Campbell was able to keep it close, making it a five-point game heading into the fourth quarter.

A three-point play by Bergeon made it a 41-39 Conant lead with 6:51 left, but the Orioles answered again, going on an 11-0 run to put the game away.

Saucier was happy with the way the Orioles improved their play from the first meeting of the season, which Campbell won on a last-second basket.

“I thought we did a good job sharing the basketball,” he said. “In the first game, we had a lot of quick shots. They make us defend and do a good job of being disciplined and taking good shots. In the first game, we would defend, come down, one pass and shot. We can’t do that. We have to be just as, if not more, disciplined as them. I thought offensively we were disciplined. We shared the ball and got it inside more than the first game.”

Both teams finish the regular season on Friday and will receive a bye into the second round of the Division III tournament.