On their ‘Six’

Spencer stars as Salem CC moves within a Saturday win of a trip to the national tournament after beating CC of Philadelphia on the road

REGION XIX TOURNAMENT
DIVISION III MEN
WEDNESDAY’S GAMES
Salem CC 83, Philadelphia 70
Montgomery 83, Brookdale 64
Union 87, Atlantic Cape 84
Northampton 83, Camden 66
SATURDAY’S GAMES
(At Northampton)
Northampton (23-5) vs. Union (22-4), noon
Salem CC (22-7) vs. Montgomery (21-5), 3 p.m.

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

PHILADELPHIA – Jyheim Spencer wasn’t in a seat when the Salem CC basketball team pulled out of the Dupont Fieldhouse parking lot for its Region XIX playoff opener Wednesday night, but by the middle of the second half he was driving the bus.

The 6-foot-8 freshman post they call “Six,” whose story of redemption has been well-documented and admired by many of the college recruiters who have seen it, was as beastly as he’s been all season. “Dominant” is how coach Mike Green described him.

Spencer had another double-double with 18 points and 19 rebounds – his ninth in 15 games – plus six blocked shots and four steals, as the Mighty Oaks bounced third-seeded CC of Philadelphia 83-70 to reach the JUCO Division III North Atlantic District B finals Saturday at Northampton.

The sixth-seeded Mighty Oaks (22-7) will play second-seeded No. 13 Montgomery County CC at 3 p.m. with a trip to the Division III national tournament in Herkimer, N.Y., March 12-15 in the balance. With the region receiving two automatic bids to the nationals, the region tournament was split into two districts crowning two champions. 

“I just had to play like today was my last game,” Spencer said. “Just play every play hard, don’t take any off; just play like it’s the last game.

“For me, this is very big because I got another chance. Not only do I get another chance, I’m in the playoffs now. I never even thought I was going to be able to play again, now I’m in the playoffs. It just felt like the first game all over again. First playoff game, got to set the tone.”

Spencer, who was already in Philly and met the team upon its arrival at the CCP gym, made his presence felt all game, but he was especially impactful in the second half and particularly the final 12 minutes.

Akeem Taylor hit two free throws to give Salem a seven-point lead, then Spencer went on a tear. He converted a sharp entry pass from Taylor into a dunk and then after hurting his left ankle fouling a guy made a put back and another basket to push the lead to 14.

Later in the quarter he picked a CCP player’s pocket coming out of the backcourt and finished that off with a dunk to make it 68-54 with 6:17 to play. The Lions (20-8) got within six with 1:30 to go before looking for someone to foul and Fortune closed them out at the line.

“That’s the way he’s supposed be for us all year long,” Green said of Spencer. “When he’s not that, we struggled, so when he is that, we’re a force to be reckoned with.

“He was a dog. He was a beast. That’s what we needed. That’s what he needs to be for us to go where we need to go.”

All three of the Mighty Oaks’ Jan. 7 newcomers played major roles in the program’s first playoff victory in three years. In addition to Spencer, Taylor had 18 points and six assists, and Tamir Powell had 14 points. Tyrese Fortune, who has been there from the beginning but only recently started spreading his wings, also scored 18 points and went 6-for-6 from the free throw line in the final 40 seconds to close it out.

The Mighty Oaks are 12-3 since adding those players to their roster in the second semester.

“He played great,” Taylor said of Spencer. “He grabbed all the rebounds we needed. He did everything we needed. I feel like everybody played well today. We could have gotten 50-50 balls more, but besides that everything was good.”

The Mighty Oaks lost to CCP earlier this season in a game they readily admit they didn’t play well. They had more turnovers than made shots in that one – a season-high 22 turnovers to 21 field goals – but on this night they were more focused and had only seven. They also made more shots.

“We came in this expecting to win,” Taylor said. “Last game we didn’t really play so well. I think we had more turnovers than made shots. We came into this one confident.”

And they left victorious.

ACORNS: The Mighty Oaks are 8-5 away from Dupont this season. One of those losses was to Montco, 74-72 on Feb. 4, in which they had a shot at the end but messed up their spacing and got the shot blocked … Several of the Mighty Oaks continue to get four-year offers, but only one has made a pledge. Rodney Shelton has committed to Harris-Stowe, an NAIA HBCU in St. Louis, Green said … Taylor is weighing several options – he recently return from visits to Harris-Stowe and Northwestern Ohio – and hinted a commitment could be coming in March.

SALEM CC 83, PHILADELPHIA 70
SALEM CC (22-7) – Akeem Taylor 6-12 6-10 18, Tyrese Fortune 4-10 9-13 18, Jyheim Spencer 9-12 0-1 18, Tamir Powell 4-8 5-8 14, Xavier Brewington 2-5 2-5 7, Josh Ramos 1-2 0-0 3, A.J. Jones 1-1 0-0 2, Tivon Woolford 1-1 0-0 2, Dontarius Jones 0-1 1-2 1, Rodney Shelton 0-1 0-2 0, Tajee Jordan 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-53 23-41
PHILADELPHIA (20-8) – Regjon Knight 11-29 5-7 29, Malachi Montgomery 1-16 2-6 4, Maki Pettigrew 4-19 0-0 9, Brince Shelton 4-16 3-7 12, Tahjir Davis 5-10 0-0 10, Saleem Henderson 1-1 0-0 2, Devon Stanley 2-3 0-1 4, Dontae Bacon 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 28-95 10-21 70.

Salem CC	42	41-	83
Philadelphia	34	36-	70