Salem coasts to fourth win

By JOE SCALZO
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
SALEM -- When Salem High senior Alyson Cotter matched her school record for 3-pointers in a game Wednesday, she wasn't thinking about breaking it.
Right?
"Kind of," she said with a laugh. "I kinda got yelled at for the last [miss]."
Still, after five games the Quakers' problem isn't taking too many bad shots -- it's passing up too many good ones.
Not a bad problem to have.
"We're almost too unselfish at times," Cotter, who had five 3-pointers, said. "It's a good problem to have because we're all willing to give the ball up. The last few games we've had very balanced scoring.
"One of our strengths is that we can put four people in double figures every night."
Pulled away to win
Salem "only" had three in double figures on Wednesday, but it was good enough as the Quakers (4-1) pulled away from visiting Canton Central Catholic, 63-41.
"I think we're still learning to play with each other," said Salem coach Steve Stewart said.
"With our rotation, we're moving people in and out a lot and I think it's going to take a little time before we reach our potential."
Not that Salem's struggling.
"I'm real pleased with how we've been playing," Stewart said.
Cotter finished with 19 points, while junior Sarah Hamilton added 14 points and six rebounds for the Quakers. Junior Katherine McGarry had 10 points off the bench.
Quakers jump out early
Salem started strong, taking a 22-6 lead at the end of the first quarter. But Central used a 15-4 run to start the second quarter to pull within five before Salem answered with six straight points to end the half.
"We had a rough second quarter," said Stewart, whose team shot just 3-of-12 from the field in the quarter and committed nine turnovers. "We got in foul trouble and had to go away from what we were doing in the first quarter.
"Frankly, we just didn't play very well."
It's becoming a trend. Salem entered the game averaging 18.8 points in the first quarter and just 10.5 in the second.
Strong at the end
Fortunately, the Quakers have played their best in the fourth quarter and Wednesday was no different.
Salem outscored Central 22-12 in the fourth to put the game away.
"We were able to assert ourselves a little bit," Stewart said.
Senior Lizzie Jesko had a career-high seven rebounds to go along with five assists and four steals for Salem.
Renee Farina and Lauren Teal each added six rebounds.
Katy Skelley led Central (1-2) with 13 points and Brittany Tarbon added 14 rebounds.
The Quakers will start defense of their Metro Athletic Conference championship against Alliance next Wednesday.
"Even in seventh and eighth grade, we were pretty much controlling the MAC," Cotter said.
"As freshmen and sophomores, that was our goal. Now we're seniors and it's our turn to take to control."
scalzo@vindy.com