RallyNorth.net

Salem runs out of magic

Wednesday, March, 18 By Dave Dyer
Staff writer

DURHAM, N.H. — Time, and perhaps a little luck, ran out for the Salem boys basketball team last night.

As a result, the two-time defending champion and No. 2-seed Blue Devils couldn’t quite clear the final hurdle in the Class L semifinals before about 2,500 fans at Lundholm Gym on the University of New Hampshire campus.

Trailing Manchester Memorial 14-4 after a dreadful first quarter, the two-time defending champion Blue Devils made run after run on the Crusaders only to fall short, 49-41.

Forced to come back the entire game, Salem (17-4) had several chances to tie or go ahead, including with a minute to go. Trailing 44-41, junior guard Alex LaRosa (9 points) launched a 3-pointer that went in and out. Blue Devil leading scorer Josh Jones (17 points) followed with two more trifecta attempts, both of which were barely off the mark.

“I thought they were all in,” said Salem coach E.J. Perry. “I’d take those three shots any time. To come back from where we were to be in a position to tie the game was a credit to our kids. We kept fighting back, but we just couldn’t get the baskets we needed at the end.”

Indeed, Salem battled back in the second quarter to trail by just one, 22-21 at halftime. Then, when the Crusaders scored the first 10 points of the second half to grab a 32-21 lead, Salem clawed back again.

The catalyst for the second-half comeback was the defense of reserve Sam Shields, who helped Salem force 10 turnovers after intermission, and the shooting of Jones, who had 12 of his points in the final two quarters.

But Memorial (16-5), which defeated Salem 72-53 in January, had two factors that helped it fend off the Salem comebacks. One was the inside scoring of aggressive 6-foot-3 forward Jason Cheverfils, who led all scorers with 27 points and also pulled down 10 rebounds.  The other was the defense of senior guard Jonathan Brandon.

Assigned to hound Salem standout Mike Kimball throughout the game, Brandon held Kimball to six points on 3 of 15 shooting and was responsible for forcing five turnovers.

“I didn’t care if I scored a point or did anything else,” said Brandon. “My job was to keep him as far away from the basket as I could and disrupt their offense.”

Explained Memorial coach Mike Fitzpatrick: “Mike Kimball is a great player and we know how important he is to that team. We had to do everything we could against him, Jones and LaRosa. We knew they’d play better against us this time, and we had to hold them down.

“This game was a lot closer than the score indicates. Their zone gave us problems, and we struggled against their 1-3-1. It was really a game of inches and we got them.”

Perry couldn’t have agreed more.

“We responded tonight, but we just couldn’t get the ball to drop when we needed it,” said Perry. “There are a lot of tears now from my seniors, but they’ve had an incredible run.”

Memorial will now face No. 1-seed Trinity in Saturday’s 3 p.m. championship game. Trinity (20-1), which lost to Salem in the finals the last two years, defeated Alvirne 65-59 in last night’s other semifinal game.