Into the Final 4

Salem CC guaranteed to finish higher than last year at national tournament after wearing down No. 12 Joliet in second half, faces No. 1 seed Northern Essex next in battle of 30-win teams

JUCO DIVISION III TOURNAMENT
At Herkimer, N.Y.
Thursday’s games
No. 11 Ridgewater 83, No. 6 Montgomery County 66, comp. of susp. game
No. 5 DC Eastfield 78, No. 8 Northampton 66
No. 6 Montgomery County 84, No. 7 Dutchess 74
No. 1 Northern Essex 99, No. 9 Genesee 78
No. 4 Salem CC 91, No. 12 Joliet 78
No. 10 DC Richland 67, No. 2 Riverland 64
No. 3 DC North Lake 89, No. 11 Ridgewater 82
Friday’s Games
Genesee (N.Y.) vs. Joliet, noon
Riverland (Minn.) vs. Ridgewater (Minn.), 2 p.m.
Northern Essex (31-3) vs. Salem CC (31-2), 5 p.m.
DC Richland (Texas) vs. DC North Lake (Texas), 7 p.m.

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

HERKIMER, N.Y. – To see Zyaire Gibson off the basketball floor or away from his Salem CC teammates you might think he was the quietest player on the team. The way he quietly sits in his locker stall. Or the way he moves past the crowd on his way out of the gym.

So it might have looked so out of character to see the freshman guard pumping his fist jubilantly in the air as he was running back down the floor Thursday after draining a 3-pointer in one of the biggest moments of the game.

Don’t be fooled. “He’s fiery, man, he’s fiery,” Mighty Oaks coach Mike Green said.

Actually, the 3 that brought out that fire was part of a pair he hit on consecutive shots down the stretch to salt away the Mighty Oaks’ 91-78 victory over upset-minded Joliet JC in the quarterfinals of the JUCO Division III national tournament here.

The Mighty Oaks had taken the lead earlier in the second half, but the 12th-seeded Wolves wouldn’t go quietly. The Mid-Atlantic champions had drawn within three with 3:08 to play when Gibson fired his salvos. His first 3 in the exchange stretched Salem’s lead to six, Saaid Lee hit two free throws to make it 84-76 and then Gibson hit his emotional 3 from the left corner to make it 87-76 with 2:15 to go.

That’s when he sprinted back down the floor with his fist pumping all the way. When he decides to pull back the curtain, he said, “depends on the situation.” The situation Thursday demanded it.

“We were in crunch time, the team needed me to hit a shot, and I came up big,” he said. “The adrenaline in the moment, it felt good, I had to emphasize it. We work on those type shots coming down in transition. My team trusts me to hit it. Make or miss, they’re gonna tell me it’s a good shot, so I pulled up, I shot it, it went in.”

“He always brings the energy, whether he’s rolling or not rolling,” Nasseem Wright said. “Once he hits a couple shots his emotion is going to start to show. He definitely shows emotion. Especially when he hits a 3 like that, the emotions are gonna come out, for sure.”

The win moved fourth-seeded Salem (31-2) into a semifinal showdown with top-seeded Northern Essex (31-3) at 5 p.m. Friday. As part of the Final Four, the Mighty Oaks are guaranteed a better finish than they had here a year ago (fifth) and are two wins away from their first national championship.

The Mighty Oaks wore down another opponent in the second half like it has all year, running nine players in and out of the game to the six the Wolvers (16-12) generally play. Seven of their players saw at least 20 minutes and only one, Wright, played more than 30 (33). Joliet’s five starters averaged 35 minutes with one going 39 and another going 40.

“They played six guys,” Wright said. “You saw yesterday they only played six guys, so we knew they were burned out even before the game. Their whole team was in the training room, so we knew they were burned out. We knew they were going to come out and fight, but I don’t think anybody in nation is more conditioned than us and ready for the moment like us, so I think that was the turning point.”

Even Joliet coach Danny Turner conceded his team was wore out by the end of the game.

“We got worn down,” he said. “We just couldn’t guard any more off the dribble. Give Salem credit with their quickness and their excellent guard play. Their execution just put a lot of pressure on us.  We’re not deep at all, we usually play 7-8 guys at all, so that kind of hurt us, the fatigue factor.

“The thing I was impressed with the most about Salem was their composure. Very poised team. Well coached. They didn’t get rattled at all.”

The Mighty Oaks trailed by five with 15:53 to play, then flipped the switch. They immediately embarked on an 18-2 run to take the lead and scored 57 points in the second half. They were 8-from-11 from the field in that stretch and wound up shooting 68 percent in the half and 5-of-10 from 3-point range.

They shot only 39 percent from the floor in the first half, 4-of-15 from 3-point range, and trailed by one at the break. Their two big 3-point shooters, Gibson and Jarrell Little, were both 1-for-5 from behind the arc.

Stef Phillips, the only player on the roster who played in last year’s national tournament, got the Mighty Oaks going with a 3 from the right corner and then it was on.

Wright was particularly active in the second half, hitting all six of his shots, scoring 12 of his 14 points, grabbing six of his 11 rebounds and dealing three assists. He followed Phillips’ 3 by double juggling a rebound over Joliet’s Jeff Fleming and finishing it off with a uncontested dunk to tie the game. Before the run was over, he swooped in to steal a rebound and feed Saaid Lee for a layup and then whipped a pass cross court to Idris Rines for a layup to make it 58-49 with 12:30 to play.

“I came out flat, getting the jitters out, I’d never been in the national tournament, but I had my teammates and coaching picking me up, so I knew I was going to get rolling sooner or later,” he said. “One thing about me, defense always led to my offense, so I knew once I woke up defensively, got some big rebounds, my offense was going to come.

“That’s what coach Mike was telling me, don’t worry about none of the (old) plays. The first half is over, we have a half of basketball to play. I knew once I got a couple defensive stops and some big rebounds my offense was going to come.”

Twelve was a big number for the Mighty Oaks in the second half. Little scored 12 of his team-high 17 points in the half and Lee had 12 of his 15 in the half. 

“We do that all the time,” Gibson said. “We were going to figure it out. We did figure it out.”

SALEM CC 91, JOLIET JC 78
JOLIET JC (16-12): Ricky Hill 6-18 0-0 13, Jyaveion Green 5-10 0-0 11, Levi Goad 5-14 2-2 13, Jeff Fleming 6-12 1-1 13, Victor Yatou 9-18 2-4 20, Kareem Parker 1-3 0-0 2, Dominick Hale 0-0 0-0 0, Josh Dillon 0-0 0-0 0, Kaden Faber 1-1 2-2 4, Gabe Patterson 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 34-79 7-9 78.
SALEM CC (31-2): Jarrell Little 7-13 1-1 17, Saaid Lee 5-8 3-4 15, Zyaire Gibson 5-11 1-1 14, Nasseem Wright 7-9 0-0 14, Stefan Phillips 2-6 2-2 7, Jahseir Sayles 0-0 0-0 0, Qua Smith 1-1 0-0 2, Nayeem Johnson 5-14 3-6 13, Idris Rines 4-5 0-1 9. Totals 36-67 10-25 91.

Joliet JC	35	43-	78
Salem CC	34	57-	91

Top photo: The Salem CC players rush over the bracket board to move their nameplate into the semifinals after taking down Joliet 91-78 Thursday.