X hits the spot

Salem men hold off Ocean for fourth win of the season, best start since reviving the program; women routed on road by Harcum

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CARNEYS POINT – Mike Green has said in order for his Salem CC basketball team to be successful it has to be a “high-volume assist team” because it has a lot of shooters.

The Mighty Oaks didn’t shoot it as often as they have in other games this year Tuesday night but they still were finding the open man at a good clip. One of their biggest plays of the night was a sharp assist from Xavier Brewington to Rodney Shelton for a backdoor layup that gave the Oaks enough breathing room to hold off the Vikings 78-71.

Their 4-1 start is their best since reviving the program in 2019.

“I’ll take it,” Green said. “It’s better being 4-1 than 1-4 all the time.”

Brewington had the best of both worlds Tuesday. The freshman returned to his scoring roots in the game with a career-high 18 points and was credited with three assists. He was a scorer his first two years in high school and last year at Cross Christian Prep, but when two players transferred into his high school his junior year his role changed to more of a grinder.

The pass he threw to Shelton came out of a timeout with 1:01 to play and the Oaks leading by three. He read the floor, drew a double team and found Shelton open down on the low left block. When the shot fell through the Oaks had a 76-71 lead with 39.7 seconds to play.

“Coach told us to execute the play and I came off the roll (and Shelton) was wide open,” Brewington said. “I saw him through the double team, so I just threw it up top and you know how tall he is (6-7) so I dumped it off to him and he got the and-one.”

Shelton finished with 10 points and eight rebounds. Niame Scott gave the Oaks 10 points off the bench. 

The Oaks had 18 assists on their 27 baskets – their second most of the young season and second-best ratio – and Green said that wasn’t enough. They took a season-low 61 shots – 12.5 fewer than their season average entering the game.

They did shoot 44 percent from the floor in the game, but what skewed their percentage was going 5-of-20 from 3-point range. They made 17 Saturday against Lehigh Carbon.

“Our tempo wasn’t good,” Green said. “We played the way they wanted to play; they slowed us way down. They made us play how they wanted to play; that’s on us.”

Interestingly, the Oaks are 28-for-67 from behind the arc in their two weekend home games, and are now 19-of-92 in their weeknight games. They came into the game leading all of JUCO Division III in 3-point attempts per game and ranked second in 3s made per game.

There are a couple theories that could explain the disparity. The weekend games are played on Saturday afternoon when the sunlight beams through the windows on the back wall at DuPont Fieldhouse and the players are most fresh. The weeknight games are in a darker gym after the players have been in class all day.

“I’ll go with the ‘B,’” Brewington said. “Saturday we usually just come straight to the gym. B, usually we’re all tired and we come out a little sluggish, but we’re good enough to keep it up and play as a team.”

“I don’t think we shot it bad as a whole; 44 percent from the field is not bad,” Green said. “Our shooters didn’t make shots; I’ll (agree on) that. We didn’t get them enough shots. I don’t think 18 assists is enough. And it could’ve been from practice yesterday; I killed them yesterday in practice. Who knows? There are a lot of variables that go into it.”

All those theories will get tested later this week with games on Thursday and Saturday to wrap this season-opening seven-game home stand.

The Oaks led 37-33 at halftime but came within an eyelash of having it much closer. Ocean’s Myles Marabuto banked in a 3-pointer from his side of his center stripe off a catch-and-shoot inbounds play that started with four-tenths of a second left.

There were a lot of people in the gym who thought the shot was launched in time – Green was not one of them — but the officials waved it off as too late.

It did set the stage for a tight second half. Ocean took its first lead of the game with 13:46 to play and led by six with nine minutes left. The Oaks retied with 6:50 left and retook the lead for good on two Tyrese Fortune free throws with five minutes to play.

Women’s Game

HARCUM 113, SALEM CC 53: The fast start the Salem CC women’s team has gotten off to hit more than a speed bump in its first road game of the season.

The Lady Oaks, who won their first three games by an average of 37 points, fell behind 32-8 in the first quarter and were chopped down by the Bears.

Salem CC 78, Ocean CC 71

OCEAN CC (3-2) – Myles Marabuto 2-3 0-0 5, Jamari Smith 5-13 2-3, Dekari Harrell 1-5 2-4 4, Brian Starrett 0-4 0-0 0, Dylan Csik 5-12 7-8 17, Dylan Hall 0-2 0-0 0, Kai Barckley 4-7 1-2 9, Jeremy Grospe 0-0 0-0 0, Jack Dougard 0-0 0-0 0, Dorian Alston 0-2 2-2 2, Maximus Hebron 1-3 0-0 2, Robert Reirson 9-11 1-2 19. Totals 27-62 15-21 71.
SALEM CC (4-1) – Tyrese Fortune 3-8 3-4 9, Josh Ramos 2-7 0-0 5, Xavier Brewington 5-10 7-7 18, Rodney Shelton 5-6 0-1 10, Shyheed Taylor 3-8 0-1 6, Dontarius Jones 1-5 2-4 5, Niame Scott 3-5 3-3 10, Julien Jones 1-3 0-0 3, A.J. Jones 1-2 0-0 2, Tivon Woolford 0-1 0-0 0, Tyrone Tolson 1-1 0-0 2, Stefan Phillips 2-2 2-2 6. Totals 27-61 17-22 76.

Ocean CC	33	38-	71
Salem CC	37	41-	78

3-point goals: Ocean 2-14 (Marabuto 1-1, Smith 1-1, Harrell 0-1, Starrett 0-2, Csik 0-4, Barckley 0-1, Alston 0-1, Negron 0-2, Peirson 0-1); Salem 5-20 (Fortune 0-3, Ramos 1-5, Brewington 1-3, Taylor 0-1, D. Jones 1-3, Scott 1-1, J. Jones 1-1, Woolford 0-1, Tolson 0-2). Rebounds: Ocean 31 (Smith 8, Csik 7); Salem 32 (Shelton 8, Brewington 7). Technical fouls: A. Jones. Total fouls: Ocean 18, Salem 19.