Exeter, Manchester Memorial boys basketball get consolation wins at Queen City Invitational Tournament

MANCHESTER – The Exeter High School boys basketball picked up a win Saturday over Dover, thanks in part to a player who isn’t even in the Queen City Invitational Tournament program.

Cody Morissette, a freshman who wasn’t added to the varsity roster until after the Blue Hawks submitted their lineup, scored a game-high 21 points, including three 3-pointers, to help lead Exeter to an 81-54 win over the Green Wave in a consolation game at Manchester Memorial.

Memorial also picked up a win in the second game on Saturday, knocking off Trinity 69-42. The Crusaders will play Exeter for fifth place on Sunday at 4:30 p.m., while Dover and Trinity will meet at 3 p.m.

Nik Ramsdell added 12 points for Exeter and Bryant Holmes chipped in with 10 while James Peel and PJ Hansen had eight points apiece.

“It was a good win for us, especially since our leading scorer, Bryant Holmes, didn’t have a great shooting night,” Exeter coach Jeff Holmes said. “We’ve got guys that can shoot it and play well. Cody did a great job taking control as a freshman point guard.”

Dover got nine points from Michael Hoeing while Eric Evans and Kylani LaFleur had seven points each and Jordan Lyndes and Matt Mulcahy had six points apiece.

The Blue Hawks led 35-30 at halftime, but Dover was able to cut the lead down two, thanks to a 5-2 run. Exeter responded with a 12-3 run to take its largest lead of the game, 49-38, on 3 by Morissette with 2:51 left in the third.

The lead was 10 going into the fourth, 54-44, and a basket by Ryan Connolly made it an eight-point game less than a minute into the quarter. But an 11-0 run, with seven points coming from Morissette, put Exeter up 65-46 with 4:56 remaining.

In the second game, Memorial got 31 points from Kabongo Ngalakulondi and 13 from Brandon Scott, as the Crusaders took control of the game in the second quarter with 10-0 run.

Trinity went almost six minutes with just two points, and after the Pioneers cut the lead to 24-15, Ngalakulondi scored six straight with two old-fashioned three-point plays in a row and the Crusaders led 34-16 at halftime.

James Santos led Trinity with 12 points and Connor Walsh added nine and Keanyon Lambert had seven.