MANCHESTER, N.H. – A field of eight is now down to two as Manchester Memorial and Exeter earned the right on Friday to square off for the 2019 Queen City Invitational Basketball Tournament championship.
Exeter, the 2018 champions, earned their berth in the finals with a 64-50 win over Lebanon. The Blue Hawks scored five times from beyond the arc in the first quarter to build early momentum and nine Exeter baskets from the charity stripe in the second quarter helped extend that edge as the Blue Hawks slowly built a comfortable advantage on their way to victory.
Jon Willeman led the way for the Marauders with 21 points, including 13 in the second quarter alone. Ryan Grijalva had 22 points for the Blue Hawks, with Mike Leonard adding 10 for Exeter in the win.
Memorial made their way to the finals thanks to an 83-71 victory over Manchester West.
The two teams stayed close throughout the first half, West taking a one-point lead into the second quarter and Memorial responding with a one-point lead of their own by the half.
Things remained close until the Blue Knights offense sputtered in the fourth quarter, as Memorial’s Deng Lual scored 13 points down the stretch, nearly equaling West’s entire final quarter output.
All of Lual’s points came in the fourth quarter, with only Jack Fitzgerald’s fifteen topping Lual for Memorial.
Kur Teng led the Blue Knights in scoring for the second day in a row with 28 points, providing the only consistent offense for West late in the contest with seven successful free throws in the fourth quarter.
Memorial and Exeter will meet at 7:30 on Saturday at Memorial to vie for the title.
In consolation games earlier in the day, Central defeated Trinity, 52-44; and Salem defeated Bedford, 72-62.
