Exeter girls basketball comes back in 2nd half to beat Dover in D1 playoffs

DOVER – Through the first half, the Exeter High School girls basketball team provided little resistance against Dover, as the Green Wave seemed primed to cruise to a victory in Monday night’s first-round matchup in the Division I tournament.

Dover sophomore point guard Avery Littlefield carved through Exeter for 12 points in a 23-9 first quarter for the Green Wave and that advantage methodically expanded to a 36-19 halftime cushion.

Ninth-seeded Exeter calmly realized in the locker room that there was still time and a different team emerged, as the Blue Hawks outscored No. 8 Dover 46-25 in the second half on their way to a stunning 65-61 victory inside Ollie Adams Gymnasium.

“We’ve been working so hard on our defense and we went to the locker room and told them it’s time to come out, time to give it your all and let's come out there and show them our defense,” Exeter coach Kaylene Rogers said. “Let’s play hard, let’s play aggressive and make sure they don’t have any space and any room to breathe.”

Exeter (12-7) now hits the road in an effort to snap the 40-game win streak of Bedford (19-0), the defending Division I champion in Thursday’s quarterfinals. The top-seeded Bulldogs advanced with a 79-21 win over No. 16 Manchester Central-West (6-13).

“We didn’t think too much of (the deficit) and we didn’t get down on ourselves,” Exeter junior Nicole Melick said. “We came out and played our game in the second half and we came out with no doubts in our mind about anything. We just came out here and had fun.”

Melick spearheaded the comeback by scoring 13 of her 17 points during Exeter’s 26-15 third quarter. Her third 3-pointer of the frame sliced the deficit to 45-41 before Littlefield (26 points) ended the run and a pair of buckets by Lilly Nossiff (21 points) left Dover with a 51-45  lead entering the fourth.

“At the end of the day we knew that Exeter team was very talented coming in and they were going to throw punches,” Dover coach James Flynn said. “I told the girls that no matter what, this game isn’t over until that whistle blows. Exeter got hot and we tried to weather the storm.”

Dover (12-7) continued to fend off the Blue Hawks when a Fitzgerald hoop gave Dover a 59-52 lead with 2:56 left in regulation when Exeter responded with a 7-0 run that began with buckets by Emma Gillis and Emme Kayes. Gillis (11 points) took a dish from Melick and evened the game at 59-59 by burying a 3-pointer from the corner with 1:31 remaining.

“We took away a 20-point lead by just sheer effort,” Rogers said. “We went into halftime and at the end of the day we said skill-to-skill we matchup well, it’s who wants it more. I think we came out in the second half and said ‘we want it more.' The girls play to the end and never give up.”

Junior Anna McGuinness (12 points) helped seal the win with a drive to give Exeter a 60-59 lead with 42 seconds remaining and went on to sink five free throws.

“We know we’re a second-half team and we knew they were playing on their homecourt and they’d be ready to play,” McGuinness said. “We had the same conversation we always had in the locker room that we’d come out and play better in the second half than we did in the first half. We knew it was our time to shine.”