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Salem fights to the end vs. Louisville

 

SALEM–Friday, Salem got an early taste of how tough the competition in the Northeastern Buckeye Conference promises to be this season. The Quakers showed they are capable of measuring up.

After trailing by as many as 24 in the third quarter, Salem clawed its way back and spent most of the fourth quarter within striking distance of Louisville before falling 77-65 at Cabas Gymnasium.

The Quakers fall to 1-1 overall and 0-1 in the NBC. Louisville improves to 1-2, 1-0.

“We can gain a lot of confidence from the way we played tonight,” Salem coach Rich Hart said. “Louisville and Alliance are the best two teams in the league and if we play a little better in the first half, tonight’s a win. There’s not a team we can’t beat if we come to play.”

The offensively gifted Leopards put Salem in an early hole and looked ready to run the Quakers out of the gym when their lead swelled to 48-24 midway through the third quarter. At that point, Salem, which started 0-9 from three-point range, began to catch fire, nailing five of its next seven three-point attempts.

Mitch Davidson canned three third quarter threes and Jon Gerace swished one home at the third quarter buzzer to narrow the score to 57-50.

Davidson led the Quakers with 21 points and seven rebounds, while Gerace added 14 points and nine rebounds. Chase Ackerman (15 points, seven rebounds) also began asserting himself inside to aid the Salem comeback.

The Quakers shot 12-of-20 from the floor in the third quarter after shooting 9-of-26 in the first half.

“Basically we were doing the same things that we did in the first half, the ball was just going in,” Hart said. “Louisville is very talented offensively. We knew we’d have to shoot well to keep up with them.”

In the fourth quarter, point guard Garrett Dickey took charge to keep the Quakers hopes alive. The senior attacked the basket repeatedly and scored eight straight points. When he finished his spurt with a foul shot, Salem was only down 65-60 with 3:21 left.

Dickey finished with 13 points, six rebounds and seven assists.

“The coaches at halftime kept saying we had to chip away and we did,” Dickey said. “We were able to drive and kick-out for easy buckets. I’m proud of how everyone buckled down in the second half.”

From there, the Quaker attack stalled, however. Salem had two chances to cut the lead to one possession, but misfired on both opportunities. Louisville senior forward Chris Libertore took it from there, scoring on the Leopards next two possessions to expand the lead to 69-60 with 1:40 left. After the Quakers missed a three their next time down the floor, Louisville began to milk the clock.

“Salem’s a real good team,” Louisville coach Tom Siegfried said. “We knew coming in that they had some players. I remember some of those guys from their jayvee team last year. They’re long and athletic and they can shoot the daylights out of the ball when they get going.”

For the second straight game, Hart lamented a slow start by the Quakers. The 6-4 Libertore scored 23 of his game-high 39 points in the first half and torched the Salem defense with his strong, quick drives and outside shooting touch as the Leopards built a 37-20 halftime lead. When the Quakers tried to seal off Libertore in the second half, Brandon Wahl sprung loose for three key three-pointers to keep Salem at bay.

“We have to learn how to start a game,” Hart said. “We didn’t do a great job on the glass and Libertore just tore us up. We went to a diamond and one on him in the second half which seemed to help. The main thing though is we just missed too many easy shots in the first half.”

Nevertheless, Hart and the Quakers saw plenty of bright spots that the young team can build on as the season progresses.

“I’m awfully proud of the way we came back,” Hart said. “They could have easily folded and got run out of this gym but they showed a lot of character. I wasn’t sure how this young group of kids would react being down like that, but they showed me a lot.”

“We haven’t played together much, so coming back against a team like that can do a lot for our confidence,” Dickey said.

Game notes

¯Louisville won the jayvee game 69-53. Josh Lehwald had 16 points to lead the Quakers. Trey Double added 15 points.

¯The Quakers are back at home Tuesday when they host Beaver Local.

¯Louisville has won the last seven meetings against Salem.

¯Siegfried, who is a teacher at Louisville, was pleased with how his team handled the school’s month-long teachers strike which ended earlier this month when the teachers voted to return without an agreement.

“We had assistant in charge at the beginning of it and I really leaned on them a lot,” Siegfried said. “I’m shocked how well the kids handled a really tough situation. Are we a little behind? Possibly, but there are no excuses and we’re moving forward.”

LOUISVILLE: 20-17-20-20–77

SALEM:           8-12-30-15–65

LOUISVILLE SCORING: Brody Hahn 0-2-2, Brandon Wahl 4-3-15, Derek Zeller 1-2-4, Jared Mathie 3-3-9, Chris Libertore 15-6-39, Davis Burick 2-0-5, Max Hartline 1-0-2, Bryce Zuppe 0-1-1, Spencer Hall 0-0-0. TEAM TOTALS: 26, 17-25: 77.

SALEM SCORING: Garrett Dickey 5-2-13, Jon Gerace 6-0-14, Zach Bezon 1-0-2, Mitch Davidson 7-4-21, Chase Ackerman 7-1-15, Robbie Sarginger 0-0-0, Braydon Gibson 0-0-0, Josh Young 0-0-0, Turner Johnson 0-0-0. TEAM TOTALS: 26, 7-12: 65.

Three-point goals: Louisville 8 (Wahl 4, Libertore 3, Burick), Salem 6 (Davidson 3, Gerace 2, Dickey).

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