Nashua North boys basketball knocks off Exeter (video)
The Nashua High School North boys basketball team was aware of what Exeter was capable of doing when it has the ball in its hands.
NASHUA – The Nashua High School North boys basketball team was aware of what Exeter was capable of doing when it has the ball in its hands.
All the Titans had to do was look back to last Friday, when the Blue Hawks came up eight points shy of a hundred, rallying from 18 points down to beat Manchester Memorial.
North focused on taking away Exeter’s top scorers, Cody Morissette and Bryant Holmes, and never let up, even when the Titans took an 18-point lead of their own Tuesday night, to beat the Blue Hawks 68-56.
“Defensively, we were pretty good,” North coach Steve Lane said. “Our main objective was to slow down Cody (Morissette) and Bryant (Holmes) and I think we held them both under double digits.
“That’s an accomplishment because they are both really good. The scouting report said that’s our main focus and if anybody else beats us that’s OK. We’ll have to take our chances with that.”
The Titans (13-3) held the Exeter duo to just 13 combined points, with Sclyler Boykin doing most of the work on Holmes.
“Boykin did a real nice job on Bryant,” Exeter coach Jeff Holmes said. “He’s a very good defender and he’s quick. This is the first time Bryant and Cody had subpar nights for us. Sometimes, one of them will have an off night and the other will make up for it. That’s a credit to (North).”
On the other end, Alonzo Linton led the Titans with 18 points, 11 of which came in the second half, while Nate Hale scored 16 points. Ronnie Silva added 14 and Sam McCarthy was also in double figures with 12.
North was able to score in a number of ways, using defense and rebounding to get out in transition, and when the Titans had to slow things down and work out of the halfcourt, they did.
“We like to get out and run, but executing in the halfcourt is important,” Hale said. “I think we did good with that. We went into the game knowing that we need to defend them and that was the key to winning because we’re both offensively good teams and can run in transition. The key was defense and we ended up doing well.”
Tim Larkin led Exeter (11-4) with 10 points, as no one else was in double figures for the Blue Hawks. Holmes, Nick Sowers and Alexander Price each had seven points while Morissette had six on two 3-pointers.
“(Sclyler) was unbelievable,” Lane said. “Bryant was visibly frustrated in the fourth quarter. He’s just so big for us on the defensive end. I don’t know what we’d do without him at this point.”
North led by two points after one quarter and was up three, 19-16, midway through the second, when the Titans went on an 11-5 to go up nine points. It was an eight-point lead at halftime, 35-27, and North opened the third quarter with a 17-7 run to lead by 18 points.
“We just picked up the intensity,” Hale said. “Part of it was that they weren’t making as many shots as we were. We definitely picked up the intensity. They were down by 13 to Memorial and came back and won. We knew they’d make a run to come back and we just fought against that.”
The Titans face another test on Friday, as they host Londonderry (8-7), which has won four in a row. Exeter, which had won eight of nine, returns home to host Pinkerton (14-2) on Friday.
