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Salem off on right foot

Salem defenders Sam Walter (2), Brock Young (3) and Dillon Monroy (4) surround Heartland Christian’s Jonathan Bertovich during Saturday’s season opener. (Salem News/Gary Leininger)

SALEM — The Salem boys basketball team coupled a hot start offensively with an excellent overall defensive performance to post a 51-38 season-opening win over Heartland Christian Saturday night in John A. Cabas Gymnasium.

“(Assistant coach George) Spack mentioned after the game that they (the Lions) were struggling to get a shot,” said Salem head coach Jeff Andres of his team’s swarming defensive pressure. “Our guys were flying around.”

Interestingly, Salem and Heartland Christian ended up playing Saturday night’s game by chance. Due to COVID-19, both schools were unable to play their regularly-scheduled season-opening opponents.

“We actually didn’t even have them (the Quakers) scheduled,”said Heartland Christian head coach Josh Scott. “We were supposed to play McDonald Friday night but Trumbull County is shut down (due to COVID-19) and they (the Quakers) were supposed to have Crestview, but they went into quarantine. So we were scrimmaging Salem Tuesday and we (the coaches) were standing there and we’re like, we both lost a (scheduled) game, so hey, let’s just do it. Jeff (Andres) was very gracious to let us come over and play and this says a lot about our program and our kids (to come over and play a larger school).”

The Quakers featured a well-balanced scoring attack which saw nine players reach the scoring column. Salem’s 6-4 junior sharpshooter Drew Weir took game-scoring honors with 15 points, including all four of the Quakers’ three-point goals in the game. Meanwhile, teammate Jon Null finished with nine points and Dillon Monroy and Brock Young ended with seven markers apiece.

Andres loves the fact that many of the players on this year’s team got valuable varsity playing time as freshmen, sophomores and juniors last winter.

“We have most of the production back from last year and that’s so valuable and it showed tonight,” explained. The Salem coach. “They weren’t nervous coming out of the locker room, they were excited.”

Leading the Lions was senior Steven Baker who had 15 points, while junior guard Jonathan Bertovich had nine points. The Quakers played excellent defense against the multi-talented Bertovich, who led the area in scoring last season at East Palestine before playing with Heartland Christian this year.

“Baker gave us that spark,” said Scott. “Bertovich means a lot to the team just handling the offense. He didn’t have the scoring game he is used to at all but their (the Quakers’) length just gave us fits. Their 1-3-1 defense was really good and we didn’t have a real good answer for that tonight.”

The Quakers got off to a great start, led by Weir, who scored 10 of his 15 points in the first quarter, including a trio of three-pointers as Salem took a commanding 23-10 lead at the close of the frame.

“I feel like it (the great first-quarter start) was key,” said Weir. “I also feel like we had good hustle all around (on defense).”

“I thought in the first half we played phenomenal,” praised Andres. “We moved the basketball and played good defensively and rebounding-wise, but in the second half we didn’t move the ball as well. But we still held them to 38 points and got the W.”

Salem’s Brock Young and Dillon Monroy both scored four points each in the second quarter and Weir hit a buzzer-beating trey before the break as the Quakers took a 16-point (37-21) lead at intermission.

Salem took its largest lead of the night at 20 points (41-21) at the 5:34 mark of the third quarter. But Heartland Christian refused to go away and slowly chipped away at the Quakers’ advantage, outscoring the host 5-4 in the third quarter and 12-10 in the final stanza.

“I’m really proud of the effort,” said Scott. “After the first quarter it was a six-point game. With Bertovich, Donofrio and Baker, those guys are all seasoned but the rest of the team is all new and we’re trying to figure it out.”

The Lions got as close as 13 points twice in the fourth quarter but Salem’s Jon Null scored four fourth-quarter points and senior Hunter Griffith also added a bucket as the Quakers answered the Lions’ run to secure the 51-38 win.

Scott is just happy to be playing, as countless other games across Ohio were postponed during the opening weekend due to COVID-19.

“We’re of that mentality right now in that we don’t care who we play at this point, if we can get games in, we’re going to do it,” he said.

Game notes

• Salem won the junior varsity game by a 51-36 final. Freshman Trent Fink led the Quakers with 15 points. Sophomore Drew Walker paced the Lions with a game-high 16 points.

• Salem will play its first road game of the season Tuesday when it travels to Springfield to play the Tigers.

“We’re looking forward to going over there,” said Andres. “Obviously they (the Tigers) have beaten us three years in a row and they’re good — they’ve got athletes and guys who have won and competed in big games, but our guys are excited to be playing them.”

• Heartland Christian returns to the hardwood on Friday when it entertains United Local.

HEARTLAND: 10-11-05-12–38

SALEM: 23-14-04-10–51

HEARTLAND CHRISTIAN SCORING: Devin Sirota 0-0-0, Joey Donofrio 0-2-2, Jonathan Bertovich 3-4-9, Aaron Gault 0-5-5, Steven Baker 7-0-15, Caleb Graft 1-1-4, Noah Pennington 0-0-0, Stephen Barnes 1-0-3. TEAM TOTALS: 12, 9-23: 38.

SALEM SCORING: Hunter Griffith 2-0-4, Sam Walter 2-0-4, Brock Young 3-1-7, Dillon Monroy 3-1-7, Landon Cooper 1-0-2, Drew Weir 4-4-15, Davin Koskinen 1-0-2, Jon Null 4-1-9, Caden Rohm 0-1-1. TEAM TOTALS: 20, 7-14: 51.

Three-point goals: Heartland 3 (Steven Baker, Caleb Graft, Stephen Barnes), Salem 4 (Drew Weir 4). Total fouls: Salem 15, Heartland Christian 16 Fouled out: none.

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