Fully-loaded Exeter boys basketball hangs on to knock off Trinity

EXETER – With senior point guard Nate McNeff in the backcourt and classmate Nik Greco up front, Exeter High School boys basketball coach Jeff Holmes feels pretty good about his team’s prospects entering the second half of the season.

The duo showed how much of a crucial difference they can make during Tuesday night’s key midseason matchup against Trinity.

McNeff set the tone defensively with three steals in the first quarter and finished with 21 points, while Greco controlled the paint and scored 18 points to lead Exeter to a 67-62 Division I victory.

“Greco and McNeff played the whole game and there were no subs for those guys (Tuesday),” Holmes said. “Nate’s really improved everything about his game. He’s our best shooter, our best 3-point shooter and best defender. He does it all.”

Exeter (6-3) welcomed back Greco with open arms after he missed the past three games with a concussion, which included last Thursday’s 72-58 home loss against Bedford.

“We missed him for two weeks and he’s really good,” Holmes said. “Having him back and in the mix was really big for us.”

McNeff felt like his team wasn’t aggressive against Bedford and fell behind as a result. The formula was changed on Tuesday after his 3-pointer late in the first quarter gave Exeter a 16-13 lead,

A steal-and-feed from McNeff to Agee Griffith began an explosive start to the second quarter from the Blue Hawks that also included a 3-pointer from Huxley Brown. McNeff capped off a 15-0 with a pair of free throws before Trinity's Connor Bishop scored to leave Exeter with a 28-15 lead midway through the quarter.

“There are two ways you can respond to a super aggressive team like that,” McNeff said. “You can shy away from it and turn the ball over or you can hit them right back and I feel like that’s what we wanted to do. Coming out with high energy and high intensity was a great way to start the game.”

Exeter maintained its cushion with a 34-19 halftime lead that grew to 39-22 following a fadeaway by Greco early in the third quarter.

“(Bedford and Trinity) are both similar teams and they both press really hard and we turned the ball over 14 times in the first half against Bedford, so in these practices the past couple of days we really focused in on that,” Greco said. “Our goal is to be a good defensive team and if we play good defense we feel like we can beat anybody.”

Trinity (7-2) stormed back and went on 26-12 run to close out the quarter that was capped off by a half court heave at the buzzer by Shawn O’Neil to close the deficit to 51-48 entering the fourth.

O’Neil (game-high 26 points) converted a drive to bring the Pioneers to within 58-57 midway through before a 3-pointer by Tyler Ream gave Exeter a 61-57 lead.

“We got down too big in the first half, we were too complacent in the first half and that really killed us,” Trinity coach Ray Farmer said. “We didn’t come out playing our basketball and didn’t have that intensity until the second half and there wasn’t enough time on the clock.”

McNeff helped finish off the game with a drive after O’Neill hit another 3-pointer.

“That was the thing (Holmes) said in the locker room at halftime is that they’re going to make a run,” McNeff said. “You know they were going to come back and press, so focusing on ball security was huge.”