Nashua South's Daniel Karavanic has the ball knocked out of his hands as he tries to drive against Exeter's Huxley Brown, left, and Jackson McDonald during Friday's game at the Belanger Gym. (Photo by Joe Marchilena/NH-HighSchoolSports.com)

NASHUA – The Nashua High School South boys basketball team put a lot on display Friday night against Exeter.

Perhaps the biggest thing the Panthers showed was how far they’ve come this season.

South scored when it needed to, defended when it needed to, and ended Exeter’s eight-game win streak with a 64-52 win over the Blue Hawks at the Belanger Gymnasium in a Division I contest between teams that entered the night among the top five teams in the division.

The Panthers (13-4) trailed just once, for a short stretch in the third quarter, but got going quickly and then held the Blue Hawks (13-4) in check in the fourth quarter.

“We got out to a little burst early, but I knew they’d come back,” South coach Nate Mazerolle said. “We executed at times offensively, which is always something we’re concerned with. The running game was there and I thought we limited theirs.

“They are a sneaky good running team. Halfcourt defense was good enough. It broke down in stretches, but we were scoring pretty well. The kids did a great job executing.”

Josh Caruso led the way with 32 points, 22 of which came after halftime, when South was able to adjust to the box-and-1 defense Exeter was using for stretches in the first half. Caruso had all four of his 3-pointers in the second half, two of which helped the Panthers erase the brief lead the Blue Hawks had.

“There was a stretch, where we were up in the third quarter,” Exeter coach Jeff Holmes said. “We got back in the game, and we had a little bad stretch. Caruso hit a couple of 3s and that broke our back a little, we were fighting uphill from there.”

Josh Tripp added 11 points for South while Linc Vanderhorst had seven points and Daniel Karavanic and Francisco Rodriguez each had six points.

Exeter got 14 points from Nik Greco while Nate McNeff had nine points and Agee Griffith, Tyler Ream and Jack Thibodeau each finished with eight points.

Although both teams put up a lot of points at times this year, the first quarter was more about defense, as South had just a 15-9 lead at the end of one. That grew to a 19-11 advantage early in the second quarter, but Exeter hung around.

The Blue Hawks held Caruso scoreless for the final six minutes of the half and tied the game three times, the latest on a pair of free throws by Huxley Brown with 29,3 seconds to go until halftime to make it 26 all.

But South worked the ball around on the final possession and Karavanic hit a buzzer-beating 3 to give the Panthers a 29-26 lead at the break.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Griffith and Ream in the third quarter gave Exeter its only lead, 34-33, and it didn’t last long. Caruso answered with a 3 to put South back up two and Greco scored to tie it up at 36.

A transition basket by Vanderhorst and another 3 by Caruso started South on a 9-3 run that turned into a 15-3 run after Tripp and Caruso opened the fourth quarter with two more 3-pointers to give the Panthers a 51-39 lead.

“There were stretches where our offense was as good as it’s been,” Mazerolle said. “Coach Holmes is one of the best in the state, he knew exactly what we were going to try to do. We run an offense they run, so we figured they might be able to take that away. We bogged down a little bit when they went to the box-and-1 on Josh (Caruso), but we made some adjustments at halftime.”

Now, after starting the year with three straight losses at home and a 5-3 start overall, South has won eight of nine going into the regular-season finale Tuesday against Concord. A win in that game would put the Panthers in a good spot for a top four seed in the D1 tournament.

“We’re a different team and we’re a better team,” Mazerolle said. “I don’t know if we’re playing our best basketball, but we’re playing pretty darn well. I hope we have a couple more levels to go up, but that was a good sign.