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Salem CC women start fast against Bucks County CC, snap four-game losing streak in big way, get back to .500

By Riverview Sports News

CARNEYS POINT – The Salem CC women’s basketball team lost a game off the schedule earlier in the week, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Not having a game gave the Mighty Oaks three good days to get things back on track and Thursday night they responded by routing Bucks County CC 73-38 to snap a four-game losing streak and get back to .500 for the season.

“It got us a chance to refocus and have a couple good practices,” Salem coach Brian Marsh said. “Instead of one day to prepare for Bucks, we had three days.

“When you’re coming off a tough loss and a four-game losing streak it took a couple days to get that off us and extra two days helped.”

The Mighty Oaks (4-4) were supposed to play at CC of Morris Tuesday night, but Morris canceled due to a lack of players. In addition to some intense practices, they played a starters-vs-subs intrasquad game Tuesday and the reserves really got after it. It carried over to Thursday with the Salem non-starters outscoring Bucks’ bench, 24-6.

“The last couple practices we’ve been pushing them really hard and we’ve had some really good practices,” Marsh said. “This week I was focusing on intensity instead of energy, I thought that was a better word.

“Not just intensity of how fast you’re moving but moving the ball, passing the ball, rebounding, playing defense. I thought we came out really well in the first quarter.”

Salem started fast, shooting 58 percent from the floor (60 percent from 3-point range) and opening a 25-6 first quarter lead. They extended it to 41-12 at halftime.

After hitting a lull in the third quarter, they refocused in the fourth and outscored Bucks 22-6 to finish.

Kathryn Laurence hit four 3-pointers in the game and led three Salem scorers in double figures with 16 points. Pennsville’s Caroline Zullo made the most of her first start of the season, scoring a season-high 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting and collecting five steals. Maggie St. Clair had 10 points.

“I thought Caroline played well and has been giving us energy,” Marsh said. “We were just looking for those fast starts, trying to play fast and not get behind early. Play our game early is really what we tried to do against this team.

“Kathryn’s battling an ankle injury, but we’re just waiting for Kathryn to be Kathryn. Her shooting has been coming, you can see in practice it’s getting back to where she normally is. She’s just a great shooter and is really shooting it with confidence now. Before she was a little hesitant, but she’s been working on her shot and kind of forgetting about her ankle. She’s getting back to the Kathryn that we’re used to from last year.”

SALEM CC 73, BUCKS COUNTY CC 38
BUCKS COUNTY CC (2-4) – Jess Kepner 1-7 0-0 3, Caramia Delucia 1-9 2-2 5, Kalypso Braynen 2-6 0-0 4, Susan McKeever 1-3 1-2 3, Morgan Volz 6-26 5-6 17, Emily Gilmore 0-0 0-0 0, Lilyana Colon 3-10 0-0 7. Totals 14-61 8-10 38.
SALEM CC (4-4) – Nyajiah Jackson 4-9 1-2 9, Caroline Zullo 5-10 0-0 12, Maggie St. Clair 5-8 0-0 10, Kathryn Laurence 6-12 0-0 16, Jakayla Jenkins 1-3 0-0 2, RayNescia King 2-7 0-0 5, Geo Tjaden 2-5 0-0 6, Dani Gustin 1-1 0-0 2, Imara James 0-6 0-0 0, Akira Chambers 3-6 1-2 7, Alexa Hopkins 2-4 0-0 4. Totals 31-71 2-4 73.

Bucks Co. CC	6	6	20	6-	38
Salem CC	25	16	10	22-	73

3-point goals: Bucks 2-10 (Kepner 1-4, Delucia 1-1, Volz 0-4, Colon 0-1); Salem 9-21 (Zullo 2-4, St. Clair 0-1, Laurence 4-8, King 1-1, Tjaden 2-4, James 0-2, Hopkins 0-1). Rebounds: Bucks 42 (Volz 11, Delucia 9); Salem 37 (Chambers 6, Laurence 5). Total fouls: Bucks 9, Salem 12.