Salem CC basketball

Mighty Oaks women drop season opener, men open their season Thursday at Atlantic Cape

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

CARNEYS POINT — The Salem CC women’s basketball team was out to keep its record in home openers under coach Brian Marsh perfect, but in the end the little things and a little roster conspired against it.

The Mighty Oaks opened their season with a 62-53 loss to Hagerstown (Md.) CC. It’s the first time in three years under Marsh they have dropped their home opener.

“It’s a tough loss at home,” Marsh said. “That’s a team I thought we could definitely compete against; we just saw them in the super jam last week. It’s definitely a game I thought was a winnable game, but I don’t think we did the little things well. We have to play better.”

The Hawks won the battle of the boards, the turnover differential and shot free throws better.

After a slow start, the Mighty Oaks picked up the pace in the second quarter and grabbed a 31-29 halftime lead. When they opened the second half with a 9-0 run, they held an held an 11-point lead with 5:52 left in the third quarter. But then the Hawks increased their energy and held Salem to only five points over the next 13 and a half minutes to grab their own 11-point lead.

“They won the 50-50 balls, they out rebounded us,” Marsh said. “At some point we have to dig deep and say this is our game. We’re trying to win our first game at home. We have a tough next couple of games and we just made that hill a little harder to climb. We’ve got to get better.”

It wasn’t all a downer. Marsh said he saw some nice things. One of the brightest spots was the play of point guard Justine Cardona. The true freshman from South Philly gave the Mighty Oaks a game-high 19 points off the bench in her college debut on a bigger floor than she was used to playing.

“Compared to the games we played before today I think I did pretty well,” she said. “I tried to calm my mind because I was playing really rushed the first two or three games. I feel like I’ve got the plays down, ran them a little bit.”

“She’s a different type of point guard than we’ve had,” Marsh said. “She can really shoot. She can score. Obviously she provided that spark and when she got hurt and was out for extended minutes trying to get wrapped it affected us. We were stuck on 40 for probably seven minutes.”

The limited roster hurt the Mighty Oaks in the end. They had two bigs foul out and were down to their last available player to put five on the floor.

“It sucks (losing a winnable game), but it’s First Game,” Cardona said. “I think we did well considering we only had five at the end. We’re just going to work to get better.

“It’s the first game. I’m not holding my head down. Usually I’d be mad al all, I’d go crazy, but I really think we didn’t do bad.”

HAGERSTOWN 62, SALEM CC WOMEN 53
HAGERSTOWN (1-0) – Tyra Hobbs 0-2 0-2 0, Andrea Elder 6-12 3-4 115 Gabbie Ball 5-13 2-3 12, Ella Bennett 2-13 0-1 6, Brianna King 6-14 1-2 13, Cylvia Prout 0-1 0-0 0, Kayla Dangerfield 3-11 0-0 6, Janae Bradley 2-10 6-7 10, Addie Shall 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-76 12-19 62.
SALEM CC (0-1) – RayNescia King 1-6 1-1 3, Tanijya Shaw 6-16 3-6 17, Kasey Oliver 3-7 0-2 6, Daniella Gustin 0-1 1-2 1, Jayda Hunter 1-7 0-0 2, Justine Cardona 6-12 6-11 19, Paula Wilson 2-4 0-2 5. Totals 19-53 11-24 53.