DIXFIELD — The first few minutes of both halves belonged to Mountain Valley High School. 

The rest of the game, and the final score, went in favor of Dirigo. 

The host Cougars fell behind early and held off a second-half charge in a 48-42 victory against the rival Falcons on Friday. 

“We were calm and collected,” Dirigo coach Karen Magnusson said. “You couldn’t tell on the faces if anyone was rattled or whatever. We battled back and ended up getting the lead. I think that comes with senior leadership and that’s something we’re trying to focus on.” 

That senior leadership came from Jessica Conant, who poured in a game-high 21 points. She scored all nine of her second-half points from the free-throw line. 

“We definitely had our energy up through the roof,” Conant said. “We talked about that before the game. We had to have that energy to beat them.” 

Dirigo (10-2) hit just three field goals in the second half, but salted the game away at the free-throw line. The Cougars went 15-for-18 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter and 17-for-20 in the second half. 

The Cougars trailed for the first 6:58 before Conant’s second bucket of the game put Dirigo in front for good. Mountain Valley’s Sydney Petrie scored the game’s first four points and the Falcons’ first six before being forced to the bench with two fouls. 

With Petrie on the bench, Mountain Valley’s offense went cold and the Cougars closed the opening quarter on a 7-0 run. Conant hit back-to-back shots sandwiched in between three Kesley Hutchins’ free throws. 

“We certainly rely on Sydney to do a lot on the offensive end,” Mountain Valley coach Ryan Casey said. “She’s become a very good leader and she’s obviously a focal point of our offense. We didn’t respond very well when she went out, but I feel like we handled it enough to stay in the game until we got her back on the floor.” 

The Falcons (7-5) went the first 2:48 of the second quarter without a point before Ashley Russell stopped the drought to close within 15-12. The Cougars led 24-16 at the break. 

Mountain Valley made it a one-possession game three times in the third quarter. A 7-0 run, capped by a three-pointer by Karen Flaherty, to start the second half trimmed Dirigo’s lead down to 24-23. Two free throws by Conant briefly made it a three-point game before Liza White cut it back down to one.

“We know it’s a tough place to play,” Casey said. “This is a historic building with a great basketball tradition. We just asked our girls to come and give everything they had and they did.” 

A basket by Hutchins and a 3 by Lauren Henderson pushed Dirgo’s lead to 31-25 before Mountain Valley closed the quarter with back-to-back baskets by Emily Laubauskas to make it 31-29. 

“It’s always pretty close because they’re our rivals,” Conant said. “They always bring it when they play against us and we bring it back.” 

Petrie picked up her fourth foul 23 seconds into the fourth and was forced to sit the next four minutes. The teams combined for six points with her on the bench — five by Dirigo. 

The fourth quarter featured just three field goals. The other 23 points came via free throws. Fifteen of those came for Dirigo and that proved to be the difference in the end. 

“There always important,” Magnusson said. “It’s important to makes those coming down the stretch and to make those in the fourth quarter and having girls wanting to take that shot and go to the line was a big deal for us.” 

Henderson and Hutchins finished with nine and seven points, respectively. 

Petrie and Emily Billings each recorded a team-high eight points for the Falcons. Billings scored all her points in the fourth quarter, including a 3 in the final seconds.