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Salem gets revenge for buzzer beater

Call it redemption. The Salem High girls basketball team suffered a one-point loss at the buzzer in Waltham Thursday night, but reloaded behind Ashley White (22 points, three 3s), Louie Rijo and Karly Henderson (15 each) to handle the Hawks, 66-46, on Salem's home floor last night.

The Witches (2-4) broke it open with a 12-0 run to start the third period and no small factor was the 5-foot-3 Rijo, who scored in double digits and was the defensive cog in holding down Waltham ace Rene LeBlanc to a mere 11 points. Home floor or not, Salem was outstanding in reversing their fortunes.

"We did nothing different in strategy. We had a nice chalk. We did the little things better on defense, and did a better job of containing LeBlanc, who is a nice inside-outside player. Rijo was in her face, and did a fabulous job, considering LeBlanc is 5-11, but we did it within a team concept," Salem coach John Fortunato said. "We also took better care of the ball tonight."

The Witches had nine 3's to none for Waltham, a major factor in the turnaround. Rijo had three and Henderson a pair. It was 24-all at the break, afterwhich Salem took off in a 17-5 third quarter breakaway. Rijo and Henderson produced timely threes in the third.

"The offense took a big step forward tonight," Fortunato said, "and caught in the third with Rijo and Henderson making some timely threes."