By Roger Brown
MaxPreps.com
It may have taken longer than Exeter High School boys basketball coach Jeff Holmes expected, but Exeter finally won the Queen City Invitational Basketball Tournament.
Exeter received a 26-point performance from senior guard Chris Petzy and beat Dover, 68-47, in the tournament's championship game at Manchester Memorial High School. It was Exeter's 14th appearance in the tournament field.
Petzy scored 11 points in the first quarter, when Exeter build a 21-7 lead.
"It was a strong first quarter, and then we kept the margin between 12 and 20 for the rest of the game," Holmes said. "It was a real good team effort. It's nice to finally win this."
Petzy scored 78 points in three tournament games and was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player. He also had five assists and four rebounds in the championship game.
Dover, which beat Exeter 68-64 during the regular season, received 14 points from Ryan Herrion, who earned the Bob Merritt Sportsmanship Award.
Center Steele Blais added 10 points and seven rebounds for the Blue Hawks, who led 38-17 at hafltime. Dover scored the first six points in the third quarter, but Petzy answered by scoring on Exeter's next three possessions.
The victory improved Exeter's overall record to 4-1. Dover dropped to 3-2.
North Kingstown, R.I., won the Oyster River Holiday Classic, which, like the Queen City Invitational, featured an eight-team field. North Kingstown beat the host school, Oyster River, 59-56, in three overtimes to win the championship.
North Kingstown's Mason Kenney scored seven of his 15 points in overtime and was selected as the tournament's MVP. The tournament field featured four other New Hampshire teams: Portsmouth, Winnacunnet, Spaulding and St. Thomas.
Girls Basketball: Hall Leads Pembroke to Title
Junior Alex Hall poured in 34 points and pulled down 17 rebounds to help Pembroke Academy capture the Capital City Classic with a 57-28 triumph over Bishop Brady.
Hall, who transferred to Pembroke Academy from Trinity, had 17 points and seven rebounds in the first quarter. She scored 40 points - a tournament record - during a semifinal victory over Merrimack Valley and was named the tournament's MVP.
In addition to Hall, the all-tournament team included Bishop Brady's Emily Spain, Bishop Brady's Ashleigh Sargent, Pembroke's Samantha Boisvert, Concord's Ashley Ardinger and Concord's Krystin Corliss.
Elsewhere, Alicia Doucet tossed in a game-high 16 points to help Manchester Central win its second consecutive Queen City Invitational by beating Souhegan, 51-36.
Central's Christiana Bakola, a sophomore point guard, contributed nine points, five assists and three rebounds and was named the tournament's MVP. Central, which is 4-0 in Class L, improved its overall record to 7-0.
"Central is quick, athletic and they have several people who can shoot the ball," Souhegan coach Jim Wilkinson said. "I don't think we'll see a team as strong as them in Class I."
Boys Basketball: Conant Player Dies in Crash
Stephen Record, a captain on the Conant boys basketball team, died following a car crash Thursday. According to the Manchester Union Leader, the car Record was traveling in collided with a pickup truck on Route 12 in Troy and Record died from injuries sustained in the accident.
Record's teammates received the news after Conant, which is located in Jaffrey, won a holiday tournament game played at Keene State College on Thursday night. The team forfeited its next tournament game out of respect for Record.
"Stephen was an honor student and captain of the basketball team," Conant principal John Barth told the Union Leader. "He was really well liked. This is going to be hard on the community, the staff and the students."
Conant has won the last two Class M championships.