A tough test

Salem CC men have another slow start, play better in second half but still fall to No. 12 Brookdale

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CARNEYS POINT – In the world of wrestling you can’t be the man until you beat the man. In the basketball world, you can’t be somebody until you’ve done something.

The Salem CC basketball team has won nine games this year and came out against the No. 12 team in the country Saturday with a swagger coach Mike Green didn’t think they necessarily earned yet and Brookdale put the Mighty Oaks in their place quickly.

The Jersey Blues opened a 16-point halftime lead and carried it to a 84-76 victory.

“We came out like we were Brookdale, like we were ranked No. 12,” Green said. “As if we had some type of success, as if we won however many national championships they’ve won, and we’re not good enough to do that. We’ve got to come out fighting.

“When you come out like that, they’ll show you who they are.”

The Mighty Oaks (9-4) led only once — 9-8 on a Josh Ramos 3-pointer — but it was at that the Blues (10-3) started putting away.

The slow start was fueled by poor shooting, an oddity of sorts given that Saturday afternoons at home have been some of Salem’s best shooting games, and turnovers. Salem shot only 26 percent from the floor in the first half and hit only two 3-pointers.

Green said it bothered him “big time” the approach his shorthanded team seemed to display approaching the game. The nine wins it has scored this year are the same number it had last year after Green took over, so whatever success they’ve enjoyed has really been a wash in his mind.

“It’s arrogance and I’m not an arrogant person,” he said. “I wasn’t an arrogant player, I’m not an arrogant coach, so it bothered me big time.

“You’ve got to do something. We haven’t done anything. We won nine game. We won nine games last year. We’re right at where we were last year. We’re not OK with that, we’re not satisfied with that.”

They started the second half hot, hitting three 3s in the first 90 seconds, and doubled their offensive productive over the first half. They shot shot 50 percent from the floor in the second half, but Brookdale matched them shooting 52 percent without attempting a 3.

The Mighty Oaks just couldn’t get the deficit to a manageable number. They got it to 10 with 2:25 to play and spent the rest of the time trying to cut into it by putting Brookdale on the foul line, but the Jersey Blues went 9-of-13 to negate that strategy.

Salem did place five scorers in double figures, but only played eight. Josh Ramos was their leading scorer with 15 points. Shyheed Taylor and Dontarius Jones each had 13 and Tivon Woolford and Xavier Brewington each had 10.

Rodney Shelton and A.J. Jones both grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds, but Jones didn’t score. Green expected a different type of Salem team, one worthy of producing some swagger, when all the injured players return.

The Mighty Oaks return to the floor Thursday against RCSJ-Cumberland in their final game of 2024. They’ll be looking to win 10 games before Christmas for the first time since the resumption of the program. The 2021-22 team also won nine games before the holidays.

BROOKDALE CC 84, SALEM CC 76
BROOKDALE (10-3) – Anthony Leger 5-8 1-3 11, Bruce Gooding 2-9 4-5 8, Devyn Wright-Myles 4-9 4-6 12, Jack Zink 6-13 2-2 14, Regan Burke 6-10 4-6 16, Shawn Valentine 0-0 1-2 1, Ariel Perez 0-0 1-2 1, Troy DaCruz 2-5 1-2 6, Latrell Thompson 4-5 1-2 9, Keith Allen 1-4 4-4 6. Totals 29-63 23-34 84.
SALEM (9-4) – Dontarius Jones 5-8 1-1 13, Tivon Woolford 3-7 3-4 10, Josh Ramos 6-12 0-0 15, Rodney Shelton 4-10 0-1 8, Shyheed Taylor 2-6 7-14 13, A.J. Jones 0-5 0-0 0, Xavier Brewington 3-13 2-3 10, Stefan Phillips 2-4 3-3 7. Totals 25-67 16-26 76.

Brookdale CC	41	43-	84
Salem CC	25	51-	76

3-point goals: Brookdale 3-11 (Leger 0-1, Zink 2-7, Burke 0-1, DaCruz 1-2); Salem 10-31 (D. Jones 2-3, Woolford 1-4, Ramos 3-9, Taylor 2-5, A. Jones 0-2, Brewington 2-8). Rebounds: Brookdale 35 (Burke 9, Leger 7, Thompson 7); Salem 48 (Shelton 11, A. Jones 11). Fouled out: Thompson, Ramos, Phillips. Total fouls: Brookdale 21, Salem 23.