Top-ranked Salem CC returns to winning ways after suffering first loss of the season, retakes sole possession of first place in region; women’s team struggles in home loss to Raritan Valley

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

NANTICOKE, Pa. – The Salem CC men’s basketball team got back to their old selves and back on the winning track in its first game since its first loss of the season, making Luzerne CC the unfortunate victim of circumstances 106-68 in its final road game of the regular season.

It may not have been as sharp in some areas as they would have liked, but the top-ranked Mighty Oaks (23-1) did plenty of good things to control a game they should have had no trouble winning and it’s a win.

And, with Union taking down Northampton elsewhere in Region 19 Saturday, the Mighty Oaks retook sole possession of first place in the region Division III standings.

They had been cruising along at 22-0 before running into Brookdale Thursday night. In a crisis of focus, they fell behind by 17 with nine minutes to play. They did rally to make it a three-point game with 3:33 left, but then went cold again and the Jersey Blues stretched the lead into the final minute.

This time they placed six scorers in double figures, got scoring from 10 of the 11 players who got in the game and had eight players with at least one assist. Nasseem Wright led the offense with 24 points (with nine rebounds and five assists). Nayeem Johnson had 16 points and five assists. Stefan Phillips had 13 points, Jarrell Little and Jahseir Sayles had 12 each, and Saaid Lee had 10 (with five assists). For Phillips and Sayles they were career highs.

“Every time we play the way we practice and play the way that we’re playing it works well; it has worked well all year,” Mighty Oaks coach Mike Green said. “We ran into a team that’s better on that given night, so it’s just about being back to our principles and being the best team we can be.”

It’s all about ball movement, wearing teams down and playing good defense. They turned the Trailblazers (4-18) over 20 times, thanks in part to 10 steals, and were credited with 30 assists on their 41 baskets.

Perhaps the only thing disappointing about Saturday’ was the continuation of their shooting slump from 3-point range. The Mighty Oaks were only 7-for-32 (22 percent) against Luzerne and are 13-for-49 over the last two games, dropping their shooting percentage from behind the arc 60 points to .337.

Green doesn’t seen concerned about it right now, but he’d certainly like to see it turn around.

“We’ve got enough guys hitting enough, it’s just the looks we’ve been getting,” he said. “Normally they’ve been knocking them down, so we just have to get in that rhythm.

“I’m a real believer in the law of averages, man, so somebody’s gonna get it, the parade of 3s. It’s boiling up.”

It took the Mighty Oaks a little while to get going, but once they got cranking they were hard to stop. The game was tied at 18, then Salem went on an 11-0 run to finally take control and steadily pulled away. They hit the 100 mark for the tenth time this season.

“You really don’t need to rile them up, they’re already that,” Green said. “Except for one game I believe this whole year they’ve always been riled up. There’s nothing that I need to do. They take it among themselves.

“I never thought we would lay down. Those guys responded and came out and scored 106 points, which should have been 130, but you’ve got to make shots.”

They have six regular season games remaining and they’re all at home, starting Tuesday night against No. 8 Montgomery County, a game they probably need to win to stay in contention for at-large bid to the national tournament if they don’t win the district tournament. No. 10 Union and testy Camden are also in the gauntlet.

“I think it’s great, as long as we don’t get too complacent,” Green said. “I think it’s great because we’ve had our fair share on the road. We haven’t been shooting it well these last two games and ironically both those games were on the road, so hopefully those guys are back in form and ready to knock it down.”

The game will be a particularly special one for at least two people directly involved. Mustangs assistant coach Jerome Monroe was on Green’s national tournament staff last year and Mighty Oaks’ guard Johnson played at Montco last year, scoring 15 off the bench against Salem in the regular-season game almost a year ago to the day.

“That’s the tough part,” Green said. “I’m sure there are a lot of emotions on his behalf. You just try to help him channel it and use it whatever it is for the best of Salem.”

SALEM CC 106, LUZERNE 68
SALEM CC (23-1): Nasseem Wright 9-14 6-6 24, Nayeem Johnson 7-13 2-4 16, Stefan Phillips 5-6 1-1 13, Jarrell Little 4-8 2-4 12, Jahseir Sayles 5-10 1-2 12, Saaid Lee 4-6 2-2 10, Qua Smith 3-7 1-1 7, Idris Rines 1-5 2-2 5
J Wright 2-3 0-2 4, Zyaire Gibson 1-8 0-0 3. Totals 41-81 17-24 106.
LUZERNE (4-18): Jacob Patterson 8-16 8-11 24, Jaidyn Johnson 1-7 1-1 3, Jayden Austin 2-7 1-2 7, Amare Ellis 2-14 6-8 11, Jonathan Mateo 3-8 0-0 7, Tyler Collins 1-3 0-0 2, Christopher Jenkins 0-0 0-0 0, Melvin Egbeto 1-3 0-1 2, Time Welcome 0-4 0-0 0, Kobe Jacobs 1-3 0-0 2, Bryan Ferreira 2-3 4-4 10. Totals 21-68 20-27 68.

Region XIX Standings

Number in parenthesis is JUCO Division III national ranking

SATURDAY’S GAMES
Salem CC 106, Luzerne 68
Brookdale 78, Ocean 77
Harrisburg Area 87, Passaic 68
Montgomery at Thaddeus Stevens
Delaware County at Williamson Trades
Morris 90, Westchester CC 64
Philadelphia 76, RCSJ-Cumberland 73
Mercer 103, Essex 95
Atlantic Cape at RCSJ-Gloucester
Camden 102, Bergen 87
Union 67, Northampton 57
Harcum 87, Delaware Tech 65
Lackawanna 86, Middlesex 59

Women’s game

CARNEYS POINT — No matter how difficult things had gotten during the season, Salem CC women’s coach Brian Marsh would never question the effort his undermanned team gave on the court.

He couldn’t say that Saturday.

Coming off one of their biggest losses of the season, the Mighty Oaks just seemed in a fog and lost to Raritan Valley 72-35.

‘There’ve been games where we played hard,” Marsh said. “We just went into Lackawanna on the road and beat Lackawanna. We come home and … I just don’t think the effort was there today.

“We shot horrendous. We did not shoot well and I was telling them if your ball’s not going into the basket then you have to play good defense, you have to rebound, you have to dive on the floor and win those 50-50 balls and we just didn’t want to do that. I don’t know what happened. A lot of our players’ heads were just not in this game today.”

There was a lot that didn’t go right. The Mighty Oaks (3-14) shot 23 percent from the floor for the game, hit just one of 20 3-point attempt – TJ Shaw in the second quarter – were charged with 29 turnovers and scored just 15 points in the second half. They gave up one-sided 20-point quarters on the front and back end of the game.

They’ve lost their last two games by a total of 106 points. That’s the way they were losing games two years ago when they brought the program back.

It seemed to bottom out in the fourth quarter when they shot 2-for-17 from the floor and scored only six points. It didn’t help that Shaw, their only player doing any consistent scoring, went out with a leg injury with 3:41 to play.

“I think this is the worst game we played this year,” Marsh said. “Now, have I seen it before in stretches, of course; but lately, really since the Cecil game right before Christmas I thought we played hard.

“Obviously there’s been times when we’ve been overmatched against some highly ranked teams, but they still played hard and they still finished hard. Today I don’t think they played hard. We just didn’t have it today. I just felt like the team kind of took their butt-kickin’ and were OK with it. That’s not normally Salem basketball.”

Shaw finished with 20 points. Kasey Oliver had 10, but nobody else scored more than three and two starters didn’t score at all. Shaw was 8-for-26 from the floor, 1-for-3 from 3-point range, but the other six players were 7-for-40 and 0-for-17 from 3. Raritan Valley, meanwhile, hit 10 3-pointers, had two 20-point scorers, three scorers in double figures and two double-doubles.

“It was just one of those things where we weren’t here today,” Marsh said. “I don’t think a couple of our players, their heads weren’t in the game; they didn’t want to be here.

“I just told them you have seven games left, how do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be remembered as a team that fought through adversity with injuries and illness and all that or do you just want to give up? That’s where they have to do it.”

RARITAN VALLEY 72, SALEM CC 35
RARITAN VALLEY (7-14): Julia Sole Pons 2-5 0-0 5, Maria Eguizabal Ruales 11-22 0-0 27, Paula Aguilera Ortega 1-3 0-0 2, Elizabeth May 8-17 2-2 21, Saionni Patrick 1-6 2-2 5, Aviva Palms 4-7 3-4 11, Jayla McNeil 0-2 0-0 0, Telma Comba 0-3 1-2 1. Totals 27-65 8-10 72.
SALEM CC (3-14): RayNescia King 1-10 1-2 3, TJ Shaw 8-26 3-5 20, Kasey Oliver 5-11 0-2 10, Paula Wilson 0-10 0-0 0, Jayda Hunter 0-6 0-0 0, Dani Gustin 1-3 0-12, Breanne Ruhl 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-66 4-10 35.

3-point goals: Raritan Valley 10-23 (Pons 1-2, Eguizabal Ruales 5-12, May 3-8, Patrick 1-1); Salem CC 1-20 (King 0-6, Shaw 1-3, Wilson 0-8, Hunter 0-3). Rebounds: Raritan Valley 44 (May 11, Palms 11); Salem CC 43 (Gustin 12, Shaw 9, Oliver 9). Fouled out: Gustin. Total fouls: Raritan Valley 12, Salem CC 10.

Region XIX Women’s Standings

Number in parenthesis is JUCO Division II national ranking

SATURDAY’S GAMES
Raritan Valley 72, Salem CC 35
Passaic 69, Northampton 59
Camden 73, Bergen 49
Harcum 99, Delaware Tech 30
Mercer 82, Essex 64
Philadelphia 103, RCSJ-Cumberland 35
Atlantic Cape 89, RCSJ-Gloucester 69
Middlesex 82, Lackawanna 47
Ocean 58, Brookdale 53

Brookdale hands No. 1 Mighty Oaks their first loss of the season, ending 24-game carryover winning streak; Salem CC women routed by No. 3 Harcum


By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

LINCROFT – As well as the Salem CC basketball team has played this season and the regularity with which the Mighty Oaks have dispatched their opponents, one would be inclined to think they wouldn’t lose until Hell froze over.

Well, the temperature in the most famous Hell in America — Hell, Michigan — was 4 above Thursday night. It was only slightly warmer in Hell, Norway, where it was 8. Both were well below freezing and the Mighty Oaks did indeed lose.

Top-ranked Salem suffered its first loss of the season, 89-83 at Brookdale. The Mighty Oaks (22-1) were the last undefeated team in the JUCO Division III rankings.

“All is not lost,” Salem coach Mike Green said. “We won 22 games straight. Our guys weathered the storm for 22 games straight. They just couldn’t do it for the 23rd.

“We just didn’t get it done. We played a really good team on their home court that was really good tonight.”

Brookdale (15-6) was particularly good at the start of the second half. It was a one-point game at halftime, but the Jersey Blues opened the second half by scoring on 13 of their first 14 possessions, highlighted by a 20-3 run in which all three Salem points came from the free throw line.

“We lost focus, man,” Green said. “We blew a lot of assignments on defense and when that happens you’ve got the tendency to try to go get it back on offense, so you just compound mistakes. We did that at least seven, eight times the second half … You’ve got to be better.”

The hellish cold crept into the Mighty Oaks’ shooting. While they’ve been hitting at 34 percent for the season, they were just 6-of-29 from 3-point range on this night (21 percent) – their second worst showing of the season. Jarrell Little, their leading scorer and a 38-percent shooter from behind the arc, was just 3-of-16 from the field and 0-for-9 from 3-point range. He had eight points, the first time he’d been held out of double figures this season.

Nasseem Wright was Salem’s leading scorer with 18 points (and 10 rebounds and five assists). Saaid Lee and Nayeem Johnson had 17 points apiece. Johnson also grabbed nine rebounds

The Mighty Oaks (22-1) trailed by 17 with nine minutes to play, but they finally came to life and cut their deficit to three with 3:33 left and had the ball. But they didn’t score again until Johnson’s driving layup with 1:08 to play. By then, the Jersey Blues had rebuilt their lead to 86-77.

“Their backs were against the wall,” Green said of the rally. “This is a resilient group. We had to blow some time outs that let them understand what’s at stake. Our pride was on the line so those guys responded, like they have all year.”

The back-and-forth first half came to a controversial close. Green was hit with a technical foul after the officials ruled Zyaire Gibson’s go-ahead 3-pointer didn’t beat the shot clock. The bucket would have given the Mighty Oaks a 45-42 lead with 33 seconds left in the half. Instead, the points came off the board and the Jersey Blues hit one of the two technical foul shots to take a 43-42 lead at the break.

But that wasn’t the factor that decided the game.

“We were getting our butts kicked,” Green said. “We gave up 40 points (each half).”

The loss ended their 24-game carryover winning streak, going back to their final two games in last year’s national tournament. They had been 14-0 in games away from DuPont Fieldhouse this season.

“You’ve got to live with it,” Green said. “The kids are a little distraught. They’re No. 1, none of these guys have ever been No. 1, never been the talk of the nation in some capacity. But hard work gets you right back in it. All ain’t lost. We’ve got seven more games I believe.”

The Mighty Oaks will look to start another streak Saturday at last-place Luzerne (4-17)


BROOKDALE 89, SALEM CC 83
SALEM CC (22-1): Nasseem Wright 6-12 6-8 18, Saaid Lee 7-11 1-1 17, Nayeem Johnson 6-11 5-8 17, Zyaire Gibson 3-8 0-0 9, Jarrell Little 3-16 2-3 8, Idris Rines 3-8 1-1 8, Stefan Phillips 2-3 2-4 6, Jahseir Sayles 0-2 0-0 0, Jaiayre Wright 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-71 17-25 83.
BROOKDALE (15-6): Matt Slaby 4-8 0-3 9, Aidan Hamlin-Woolfolk 11-18 4-4 28, Evan Weiner 5-9 4-6 15, Keith Allen 7-17 6-10 24, Ariel Perez 0-0 0-0 0, Kyle Fulcher 3-4 0-0 6, Emmanuel Miller 1-4 0-0 2, Dream Aikins 0-0 0-0 0, Leonardo Lopez 0-0 0-0 0, Kevin Hemans 2-4 1-2 5. Totals 33-64, 15-25 89.

Region XIX Standings

Number in parenthesis is JUCO Division III national ranking

THURSDAY’S GAMES
Brookdale 89, Salem CC 83
Philadelphia 76, Luzerne 60
Raritan Valley 104, Rockland 102
Union 87, RCSJ-Gloucester 58
Atlantic Cape 79, Sussex 78
Essex 108, Bucks 87
Camden 71, Passaic 49
Ocean 81, RCSJ-Cumberland 79
Northampton 96, Mercer 86
SATURDAY’S GAMES
Salem CC at Luzerne
Brookdale at Ocean
Harrisburg Area at Passaic
Montgomery at Thaddeus Stevens
Delaware County at Williamson Trades
Morris at Westchester CC
Philadelphia at RCSJ-Cumberland
Essex at Mercer
Atlantic Cape at RCSJ-Gloucester
Camden at Bergen
Union at Northampton
Harcum at Delaware Tech
Lackawanna at Middlesex

Women’s game

HARCUM 107, SALEM CC 38
HARCUM (19-1): Jaida Helm 2-6 0-0 5, Eternity Aiken 3-4 2-2 8, Alanah Barnhill 3-8 2-2 9, Sofia Vitucci 10-17 2-2 26, Tayla Barros 5-11 0-0 14, Senaya Parker 3-6 2-2 8, KeNiya White 2-3 0-0 4, Alaysia Fernandez 2-5 0-0 4, Kyndall Brewington 7-15 3-3 20, Nyoman Austin 4-11 1-2 9. Totals 41-86 12-13 107.
SALEM CC (3-13): Paula Wilson 3-9 0-2 9, RayNescia King 1-9 0-0 2, Tanijya Shaw 6-17 7-8 21, Kasey Oliver 1-5 2-2 4, Jayda Hunter 0-6 0-0 0, Dani Gustin 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 12-48 9-12 38.

3-point goals: Harcum 13-36 (Hełm 1-4, Barnhill 1-5, Vitucci 4-8, Barros 4-9, Parker 0-2, White 0-1, Brewington 3-7); Salem CC 5-21 (Wilson 3-8, King 0-3, Shaw 2-8, Oliver 0-1, Hunter 0-1). Rebounds: Harcum 50 (Austin 11); Salem CC 23 (Hunter 5). Total fouls: Harcum 13, Salem CC 11.

Region XIX Women’s Standings

Number in parenthesis is JUCO Division II national ranking

THURSDAY’S GAMES
Harcum 107, Salem CC 38
RCSJ-Gloucester 63, Montgomery 40
Philadelphia 57, Brookdale 48
Ocean 79, RCSJ-Cumberland 77
Camden 63, Passaic 52
Atlantic Cape 77, Sussex 48
Mercer 93, Northampton 54
SATURDAY’S GAMES
Raritan Valley at Salem CC
Passaic at Northampton
Camden at Bergen
Harcum at Delaware Tech
Essex at Mercer
Philadelphia at RCSJ-Cumberland
Atlantic Cape at RCSJ-Gloucester
Lackawanna at Middlesex
Brookdale at Ocean