PH gives Spartans first loss of season; K-Guard next week
SALEM – The Salem High basketball team will be participating in the K-Guard Holiday Classic tournament once again this year. The tournament is scheduled to begin next Wednesday, December 28, at the Salem Civic Center.
Salem will open the tournament at 3 pm against Alleghany High. The eight team tournament continues with Hidden Valley against William Fleming at 4:30 pm, Patrick Henry against Gar-Field at 6 pm, and host Cave Spring against Broadway at 7:30 pm.
Salem's Josh Bailey (#30) fires a three from the corner.
The tourney continues on Thursday and Friday, December 29 and 30, with four games each day, culminating in the championship game on December 29 at 7:30 pm.
It should be a pretty good tournament. Alleghany is one of the better teams in the Blue Ridge and the Mountaineers have a 6’8” center and a 6’5” forward.
“Everyone in the tournament will be good,” said Salem High coach Kevin Garst. “It will be a good experience for us. You have to be mentally tough to put it together for three nights in a row. It will be an accurate measure of where we’re at as a team.”
Record-wise the Spartans are 5-1 after losing for the first time last Friday, 66-44 to Patrick Henry at SHS. Marcus Banks had 19 to lead the Patriots, who made five of 14 three point attempts as opposed to five of 24 for Salem.
“They have two guards who can really go,” said Garst. “We needed to contest their shots a little more. Things like that show up against a good team. We were getting by with some stuff, but when you play a team like Patrick Henry it catches up with you if you don’t do the little things you need to do to win.”
Salem also had twice as many turnovers as PH, 24-12, and shot 25 percent(14 for 56) from the floor as compared to 52 percent(25 for 47) for the Pats. Throw in a 28-18 edge on the boards for PH and it makes it tough to win.
“They played a game they wanted to play and we didn’t play our game,” said Garst. “It will be a good learning tool.”
Tyler Treski led Salem with 13 points while Alex Light and Michael Brown had seven each. Light had seven rebounds.
A night prior in Daleville Salem looked like the best thing since sliced bread against a weaker team, as the Spartans lit up Lord Botetourt, 66-55. After trailing 18-17 after the first period Salem took off, outscoring LB 37-18 over the second and third quarters. The Cavs made a late run with the subs in the game but Salem was never threatened.
“Their pressure got to us,” said LB coach Chad Conner. “They play about 14 guys and they just come at you in waves.”
The Spartans had 14 different players score, led by Treski with a dozen. Light had 10 and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds. Matt Hill had eight points and eight boards and KJ Helm also had eight points.
Salem is now off until the Christmas tournament at the Civic Center.
“It’s always nice to play at the civic center,” said Garst. “We’re going to have to play well, because if you don’t you’ll know it against these teams.”
