Salem rallies from 12 down in second half to make it a two-point game late in fourth quarter, then comes up dry, falls to Pitman in SJ Group I semifinals
SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I
THURSDAY’S BOYS SEMIFINALS
Pitman 51, Salem 42
KIPP Cooper 70, Wildwood 48
SATURDAY’S CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
No. 2 Pitman (22-7) at No. 1 KIPP Cooper (22-8), 3 p.m.
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PITMAN – Anthony Farmer, the coach, slumped on a bench in the back row of the locker room, his head buried in his hands. Paul Weathers leaned against a wall with a towel over his head to hide his emotions. The rest of Salem players cleared out their stalls and silently stuffed gear in their bags. The despair in the dressing room was palpable.
The Rams gave it all they had and were in it with three minutes to play, then went dry.
Pitman pulled away from a close game with three minutes to play and then held off the Rams 51-42 in the South Jersey Group I boys semifinals. The second-seeded Panthers (22-7) now travel to top-seeded KIPP Cooper Norcross Academy (22-8) for Saturday’s 3 p.m. sectional title game.
Pitman junior Elijah Crispin led the all scorers with 32 points. He buried three straight deep 3-pointers in a 90-second stretch late in the second quarter to give his team an eight-point halftime lead. Sonny Myers had 15 rebounds. Trey Tinges did an admirable job on Salem senior guard Anthony Farmer, holding the coach’s son and 1,000-point scorer to nine points in his final high school game and none in the fourth quarter.
“It hurts,” guard Farmer said. “We were right there. I really wanted this. It’s definitely tough when you know you’re that close and you come up short. We gave it everything we had, but … they got the best of us tonight.”
Ramaji Bundy led Salem in his final high school game with a career-tying 15 points and six rebounds and drew the defensive assignment on Crispin. He hit all three of the Rams’ 3-pointers and was their driving force early with seven points in the first quarter. Jabez DeJesus had 10 points and nine boards. Weathers also grabbed nine rebounds.
The Rams (18-9) trailed by 12 early in the third quarter and by seven early in the fourth, but refused to fold. DeJesus got them within four on a driving layup with 5:04 to play and Bundy made it a two-point game with a pair of free throws with 2:56 left. But they were the last points Salem would score.
They nearly brought it all the way back, but just couldn’t get over the hump.
“That right there is the dagger in my heart,” DeJesus said. “I’m proud of my guys for fighting to the end. I know we didn’t get the end result we wanted, but that goes to show even if you give 100 percent the wins are never promised. Sometimes things just happen like that. We did what we could, we live with the results.”
Crispin extended the lead with a basket, then hit two free throws with less than a minute to go to make it 48-42. Chris Wyllie closed the scoring with a three-point play, his only points of the game, with 48.4 to go.
“We had opportunities,” Coach Farmer said. “We had plenty of clean looks that we could take the lead or blow it open, maybe play with a little lead, (but) the opportunities didn’t go down for us, shots didn’t go down for us. Give them credit. They hit the ones they needed to make.
“What more do you want? You cut it two, two minutes to go, you’re on the road, it’s yours for the taking. You’ve gotta make plays.”
NOTES: Bundy scored 35 points in his last three games and averaged almost 10 over his last seven games … It was only the third time in his last 40 games Farmer was held out of double figures … The nine points he did get left him with 1,175 for his career … Crispin hit four 3s in the game and now has 65 and 184 in his career. “It’s a nice feeling to hit a deep one,” he said … The Panthers were 13-of-13 from the free throw line before Crispin missed two with 34 seconds left.
SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I
BOYS SEMIFINALS
PITMAN 51, SALEM 42
SALEM (18-9) – Ramaji Bundy 5 2-2 15, Anthony Farmer 4 1-2 9, Jabez DeJesus 5 0-0 10, Paul Weathers 2 0-0 4, Tymear Lecator 1 0-2 2, Donovan Weathers 0 0-0 0, Marshall Stephens 1 0-0 2. Totals 18 3-6 42.
PITMAN (22-7) – Porter Kostiuk 0-2 0-0 0, Stephen Devanney 3-11 0-0 7, Elijah Crispin 8-25 8-10 28, Trey Tinges 1-2 2-2 4, Chris Wyllie 1-2 1-1 3, Michael Fisicaro 1-9 0-0 3, Sonny Myers 2-8 2-2 6, Greg Peterson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 16-59 13-15 51.
| Salem | 13 | 10 | 12 | 7 – | 42 |
| Pitman | 14 | 17 | 9 | 11 – | 51 |
KIPP COOPER NORCROSS ACADEMY 70, WILDWOOD 48
| Wildwood (18-12) | 4 | 10 | 14 | 20 – | 48 |
| KIPP Cooper (22-8) | 20 | 15 | 16 | 19 – | 70 |
Riverview Sports News 