By Christopher Shaban
Staff Writer
MANCHESTER — Elizabeth Gonyea had the game of her life on Sunday as she led Conant to their second consecutive state championship with 17 first-half points.
Fall Mountain fell behind and just couldn’t catch up as Conant played a perfect first 16 minutes and held off a furious Wildcats charge to hold on for the 59-43 win at Trinity High School.
The Orioles opened the game with their best half of the year zipping out to a 12-2 lead while the Wildcats struggled with the Conant speed at the outset. As Gonyea was knocking down three pointers by the bunch, the Orioles inside game took over in the second quarter as the Wildcats began to get into foul trouble with a three-man officiating crew in the house. Conant opened up a huge 31-10 lead with Erin Brady forced to the bench but late three pointers from Morgan Beauregard and Mackenna Grillone gave Fall Mountain life trailing 31-16 at the break.
“That was our best half of basketball in probably two seasons,” said Conant head coach Brian Troybut, “but we knew Fall Mountain wouldn’t go away.”
With Brady back in the game to start the second half, the Fall Mountain offense started to click as Brady’s quick four points combined with a Sophie Bardis drive and scoop shot was followed by a Bardis long range three and suddenly the gap was only 35-25. Brady was whistled for a foul that could have gone either way but she had to take a spot on the Fall Mountain bench and that lit up Gonyea’s eyes.
“Fall Mountain is loaded with talent so we just looked for our game and kept to it,” Gonyea said.
Grillone and Stewart knocked down big shots for Fall Mountain but Gonyea countered with six points to close out the third quarter with the Conant lead back up to 45-29 setting up the frantic final quarter.
Grillone and Stewart would start the Fall Mountain comeback with hoops then Fall Mountain went into full court press mode. Gonyea drilled another three pointer but the Wildcats would make things very interesting quickly. Brady would score off an offensive rebound then Bardis hit another three pointer as the Fall Mountain defense was stifling. Stewart would drop in a hoop and when Grillone made a steal, Brady’s hoop on the other end cut the Oriole lead to 50-42 with two minutes remaining.
“We threw everything we had at them tonight. We switched defenses and who covered whom, we tried different offense sets, and if we didn’t have so much foul trouble, I could have used the press more,” said Fall Mountain head coach Matt Baird-Torney. “Nothing came easy today.”
After a Conant timeout with the Fall Mountain fans giving their team a standing ovation, the Orioles went into a stall forcing Fall Mountain to foul. Gonyea continued her spectacular day sinking all of her free throws down the stretch as she made 13 of 14 in the game. Conant sent everyone crashing the boards including 5-foot-4 Reagan Despres and 5-foot-6 Brynn Rautiola who somehow managed to squirm their way to grab huge rebounds among the tall timber to give Conant it’s second consecutive undefeated championship season 59-43.
“We came out on fire and that carried us today,” Troy said. “Credit Fall Mountain, they are by far our toughest opponent and they came at us today.”
Gonyea finished with her best scoring game of her career with 32 points and went out of her way to track down Stewart after the game for an embrace.
“She is just a fantastic player,” Gonyea said. “I wanted to make sure I could talk with her and tell how much I respected her and the entire Fall Mountain team.”
Stewart led Fall Mountain with 12 points with Grillone adding 10 points, Bardis with nine, Brady with eight, and Beauregard with three.
“Credit Conant with a fantastic start, they came out on fire and we played catch-up all game,” Baird-Torney said. “We had to manufacture everything but I think we were starting to gain the advantage as the game wore on but we just ran out of time. This group never quit and fought as hard as they could right until the end.”
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