Salem's Jesko breaks school 3-point record

He finished with 30 points to lead the Quakers past Chaney.
By GREG GULAS
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
YOUNGSTOWN -- In the season opener against United, Salem's Tom Jesko set the school's career mark for 3-point goals by canning his 84th triple.
Tuesday against Chaney, Jesko scored 30 points and in the process set the school single game mark by canning eight buckets from beyond the arc to lead the Quakers over the Cowboys, 85-63
The old mark was set by Landon Heath, who registered seven triples against Niles two seasons ago.
"Coach [Jeff] Brink always emphasizes to us to make your first couple of shots good ones, always getting a good look at the bucket," Jesko said. "The first couple of shots that I took were good looks and after that the rim just looked like the size of the ocean.
"I never felt that anything like this would ever happen to me," Jesko said. " I need to credit my teammates for their great feeds tonight. At the end, [Tyler] Pierce passed up an easy layup to feed me the ball for the record."
Hot start
Jesko canned three of his treys in the first quarter, Steve Jeckavitch added his only triple of the game and the team registered another two conventional 3-point plays as well as the Quakers raced to a 23-13 first-period lead
Three more triples and 11 points by Jesko in the second period helped Salem to a 41-26 halftime lead.
"This was a good win for us tonight, but we still need to do the little things better if we expect to be a good club this year," Brink said. "Our post play was excellent and the credit must go to [Ryan] Benchwick and Pierce.
"That post play creates open looks for our outside game and that was evident tonight," Brink said. "We're passing better as a unit, and after two games I am really pleased with the progress that we have made."
Pulling away
Benchwick's eight points and seven markers by Jesko (including the record-tying three point bucket at 2:28) after intermission staked the Quakers to a 66-43 lead with just eight minutes remaining. Buddy Cramer's six points and the record-setting triple by Jesko with just 23 seconds remaining then rounded out the scoring for the Quakers.
"They shot the ball really well tonight," said Chaney coach Bernard Bolha. "When you can break the press and your shooters are open, that usually spells a long night for you.
"Give credit to their offense as they hit their open shots. While we had quite a few open opportunities ourselves, we failed to connect and that was the difference in the game," Bohla said.
The Quakers canned 28 of 46 field goal attempts (61 percent) while holding the Cowboys to just 26 of 63 (41 percent) aerial tries.
Salem held a 28-21 rebound advantage with Benchwick hauling in a game-high nine caroms.
Evan Busch had a team-high six rebounds for the Cowboys.
In addition to Jesko's 30 points, Benchwick added 17 points and Cramer and Pierce 10 each for the Quakers (2-0).
Antonio Fitzgerald paced Chaney (0-5) with 17 points while Domineaque Peake and Corey Council added 15 and 11 points respectively for the Cowboys.