Trinity boys basketball plays fast, free to beat Pinkerton in D1 semifinal (video)

EXETER - The Trinity High School boys basketball team has focused on playing fast and free since its only loss of the season.

Thanks to that style, the Pioneers now have a chance to avenge that lone blemish.

Top-seeded Trinity hit seven of its nine 3-pointers in the first half and took over Wednesday's Division I semifinal in the third quarter with its transition game on the way to a 74-57 win over No. 4 Pinkerton at Exeter High School. The Pioneers move on to the D1 title game for the first time since 2013, where they will face No. 3 Goffstown - the only team to beat them - in the final at 10 a.m. Sunday at the University of New Hampshire.

DeVohn Ellis led the way for Trinity (18-1) with 20 points, including two 3-pointers, while Tyler Bike added 18 points, hitting two 3s of his own and going 6 for 6 at the free throw line. Mark Nyomah added 15 points and Andrew Politi scored 12 points, with two 3s, while Max Shosa had two 3s for his six points.

"We’ve been stressing playing fast and freely," Trinity coach Keith Bike said. "I don’t pull guys out for making bad offensive mistakes. Every kid is going to make mistakes. I pull kids out if they don’t play hard on defense. I think they recognized they can play freely in this system, and we’ve been playing faster and freely the last few weeks since our last loss."

Since that loss, the Pioneers have won six straight, including the playoffs, and two of those wins have been over the Astros. Trinity won 52-44 on its court on Jan. 31, but the Pioneers' 3-point shooting in the first half had them halfway to that total with three minutes left until halftime.

Trinity had a 30-18 lead with 2:35 but Pinkerton scored nine straight points to cut the lead to three, including a 3-pointer in the final seconds by Anthony Chinn. But the Pioneers had enough time to get the ball in to Tyler Bike, and his shot from halfcourt banked in to give Trinity a 33-27 lead at the break.

That lead exploded to start the second half, as Trinity scored seven points in the first 1:05 and extended the run to 14-2 to take a 47-29 lead with just under five minutes left in the third. Leading the way on both ends of the floor were Nyomah and Ellis.

"We extended the lead and we made shots right from the start," Keith Bike said. "(Nyomah) has been so good for us, especially late in the year. He’s grown so much as a player and his intellectual ability on the court, you watch him from last year to this year, he’s making passes that you’re supposed to make.

"Everyone else calls it a supporting role, or a fourth option, but if that kid (Ellis) was on any other team in the state, he’d be their main scorer. DeVon has bought into that and it’s great to have a kid who is supposedly a role player."

The Pioneers led 59-39 with 5:45 remaining in the game when Chinn, who finished with a game-high 29 points, started to get the Astros back into the game. Pinkerton outscored Trinity 14-4 over the next three-plus minutes to cut the lead in half, but the Astros couldn't get any closer, as they struggled at the free throw line.

Jackson Marshall was also in double figures for Pinkerton with 15 points, but no one else had more than five points for the Astros.