All in all game

Salem CC men: After 90-minute meeting to get some things straight, Mighty Oaks were engaged all game, rediscovered their outside shot and beat Lehigh Carbon

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CARNEYS POINT – If Mike Green’s post-game comments two nights earlier about his team being “not good enough” in certain aspects of the game was a not-so-veiled message directed at his players through the media, they certainly seemed to hit the mark.

And if they didn’t, well, a 90-minute closed-door meeting in lieu of practice Friday morning with the coach doing most of the talking reinforced the idea.

The Mighty Oaks, who’ve been consistently slow out of the gate in their first three games, were engaged from the start Saturday and even got their long-range shooting touch back in beating Lehigh Carbon CC 90-76 at the DuPont Fieldhouse.

They did it with another big second half, but at least this time they didn’t have to dig themselves out of an early hole before doing their second half thing. That’s what he’s talking about.

“They responded very well,” Green said. “Good teams hold each other accountable and we don’t do that all the time. I challenged them again to hold each other accountable because I’m not going to keep doing it. It’s got me looking crazy. I’m yelling. I don’t yell.

“Today they held each other accountable. You saw my starting lineup? Those are the people who have been accountable up to this point. The guys who have been given minutes, been given opportunities, y’all got to earn them now because I’m going with the people who hold each other accountable. They responded well. They responded very well.” 

On Thursday night the Oaks fell behind Delaware Tech 14-0 at the start and trailed by as many as 15 points in the first half, but unlike their first two games when they rallied from slow starts to win, this time they never recovered and suffered their first loss of the season.

It prompted the second-year coach to say his team was “not good enough” to regularly give teams points early with hopes of rallying later, a point he reiterated in Friday’s meeting – and again at halftime Saturday.

“We are a very good team when we play together, so coach was saying we have a lot of selfish, a lot of egos, going on,” freshman guard Tyrone Tolson said. “We came together, we talked about it, everybody figured out what we wanted to do and get our roles all in.”

What was particularly frustrating about Thursday’s game was they endured one of the worst shooting nights in Green’s short tenure with the program. The Oaks made 188 3s in their 18 games with Green last year, but were only 6-of-36 from 3-point range against the Squares and had just 14 in the last two games.

But they hit seven 3-pointers in the first 10 minutes against the Cougars Saturday and drained a season-high 17 in the game — the second most in the Green era — on 38 attempts. The first basket of the game was a jumper by Tyrese Fortune and then all 10 of their field goals the rest of the half all from beyond the arc. And then they opened the second half with one from Niame Scott to take the lead for good. Seven players made at least one 3-pointer in the game. Leading scorers Josh Ramos (15 points) and Tolson (13) had four each. 

“Our shooters had to lock in and shoot,” Tolson said. “The pass is there, we’re getting open shots and today we were knocking them down. They were falling for us and we stayed locked in.”

The reason it worked is they were moving the ball. They had a season-high 23 assists (on 27 baskets), tied for the most in the Green era, and that doesn’t count “coach’s assists” on passes that resulted in free throws on shots that failed to fall. Twelve of the 13 Oaks who got in the game scored.

“I’m in the gym with these guys all the time; I know they can make shots,” Green said. “When we’re not making shots it’s because people are being selfish; you’re not passing the ball to the open man. When we’re making shots, it’s just because we’re moving the ball. We have to be a high-volume assist team because we’ve got shooters.”

It wasn’t all rosy, though. Late in the second half the Cougars cut a 20-point Salem lead with 8:30 left to nine with 4:25 to play. Going back to the initial theme the Oaks are “not that good” to have garbage time with a big lead.

They managed to stop the bleeding by returning the accountable players to the game. Stefan Phillips’ putback (his only bucket of the game) and Tolson’s left corner 3 got the Oaks back on track and they kept the lead in double digits the rest of the game.

“We’re all supposed to hold each other accountable,” Tolson said. “The bench is supposed to come in with the same energy. They came in, we had a couple guys lollygagging, not playing serious, getting petty fouls, but coach took them out and put us back in the game.

“I told coach we can’t have that. We’ve got to stay on it, everybody has to be on the same page, everybody has to be together. We’re only good as one. Without each other we don’t do good.” 

Cover photo: Tyrone Tolson launches one of the season-high 17 3-pointers the Salem CC men’s team hit Saturday in a 90-76 win over Lehigh Carbon. (Photo by John Holt)

SALEM CC 90, LEHIGH CARBON 76
LEHIGH CARBON (1-4) – Joel Contreras 6-15 10-12 24, Josh Shepherd 5-16 5-5 16, Robert Johnson 5-8 1-5 13, Andrew Hoadley 5-15 2-4 12, Daquan Burgess 2-9 5-6 16, John Kuchta 0-0 0-0 0, Nick Hetman 0-1 0-0 0, Jacob Schuebel 0-0 0-0 0, Mekhi Adonis 0-3 1-4 1. Totals 23-68 24-36 76.
SALEM CC (3-1) – Julien Jones 0-0 0-0 0, Tyrese Fortune 3-12 1-2 7, Tyrone Tolson 4-7 1-2 13, Rodney Shelton 0-0 3-4 3, Sami Anderson 2-3 2-2 8, Dontarius Jones 3-5 0-0 8, Niame Scott 2-8 1-2 7, A.J. Jones 3-6 0-0 8, Tivon Woolford 0-4 2-2 2, Josh Ramos 5-12 1-2 15, Xavier Brewington 2-7 0-0 4, Shyheed Taylor 2-4 3-3 8, Stefan Phillips 1-1 5-6 7. Totals 27-68 19-25 90.

Lehigh Carbon	40	36-	76
Salem CC	40	50-	90

3-point goals: Lehigh Carbon 6-26 (Contreras 2-5, Shepherd 1-9, Johnson 2-3, Hoadley 0-4, Burgess 1-5); Salem CC 17-38 (Fortune 0-4, Tolson 4-6, Anderson 2-3, D. Jones 2-4, Scott 2-4, A.J. Jones 2-3, Woolford 0-1, Ramos 4-9, Brewington 0-2, Taylor 1-2). Rebounds: Lehigh Carbon 42 (Hoadley 14, Johnson 8, Contreras 9); Salem CC 36 (Fortune 8, Shelton 5, Brewington 5). Technical fouls: Lehigh Carbon coach Foley. Fouled out: Adonis. Total fouls: Lehigh Carbon 18, Salem CC 26.