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Second-half surge lifts Salem past South Range
By Greg Gulas
SALEM
The South Range boys basketball team knew Salem’s sub-.500 record wasn’t indicative of how explosive its offense can be.
The Raiders found out first-hand exactly how explosive the Quakers can be after the teams played to a halftime tie Tuesday night.
Salem (4-4) canned eight 3-pointers in the third quarter, connected for 14 overall from beyond the arc and exploded for 49 second-half points in a 78-58 victory at John A. Cabas Gymnasium.
The Quakers’ victory also prevented Raiders head coach John Cullen from recording his 500th career coaching win.
Jon Gerace had a game-high 18 points, D.J. Pullie added 15 and Dan Laut and Trey Touthman each added 12 points to lead Salem.
“When you play as a unit, you play much better than you would as five individuals,” Gerace said. “It was all about momentum tonight and we had that in the third quarter. We played Quaker basketball, which is under control, unselfish and sharing the ball.”
The Quakers took the early 12-6 lead on a bucket by Nick Rusyn midway through the opening period, but a 9-0 South Range run made it 18-17 in favor of the Raiders (8-2) heading to the second period.
Trailing 29-24, the Quakers reeled off the final five points of the framer to forge a halftime tie at 29.
It was then that Quakers head coach Rich Hart gathered his troops for their second-half instructions.
“We got some good looks in the first half, but I felt as if we had to move the ball better,” Hart said. “We did that in the second half and were very unselfish. When we’ve won, we’ve played like this and when we’ve lost, we didn’t.
“South Range is well-coached and very fundamental so you have to do the little things in order to win. Basketball is still a very simple game in that you must put the ball in the hole and rebound if you expect to win.”
The Quakers came out sizzling in the third period, hitting three triples out of the gate, running their consecutive-point streak to 16 as they took a 40-29 lead and never looked back.
All eight buckets in the period came from beyond the arc with Pullie knocking down all three of his 3-pointers in the quarter, which allowed Salem to build a 57-44 lead heading to the final eight minutes.
“They’re a good team, but we felt that if we play our game then we could win,” Pullie added. “When you play hard and are making all those 3’s, it becomes contagious. We were patient and moved the ball so when one player hits, then another and another you tend to feed off each other.”
Gerace’s 11 points in the final quarter sealed the victory.
“Give them credit because their 3’s came off of dribble penetration and they made good passing decisions,” Cullen said.
“There are four constants in basketball in that you must take care of the ball and make free throws, which we didn’t do a good job of tonight. You must rebound and in the first half alone, they had 11 second-chance points. Finally, you must play defense. You must never feel like you are out there by yourself.”
The Quakers canned 16 of 23 free-throw attempts while the Raiders could manage just nine of 17 from the charity stripe after failing to get to the line the entire first half.