By SPENCER BATES
SALAMANCA — After dropping its first game in league play on the season, the Salamanca boys basketball team responded in a massive way, defeating Cleveland Hill 74-33.
The Warriors wasted no time imposing their will on their opponent after suffering just their second defeat of the entire season, a 62-54 result on the road at Falconer earlier in the week, finishing the first quarter up 19-4 and the first half 42-13.
According to Adam Bennett there were a number of things that he and his team wanted to work on in the wake of the defeat, mainly their physicality and defense, and they just about executed each of those points to perfection.
“I thought, with all the things that we keyed in on the last two days, we did much better,” Bennett said. “Our movement against the zone was better, we were flipping the floor, attacking in the right spots and less dribbling. … I thought we ran the floor better tonight, and we got back to playing a physical game. I was really disappointed Tuesday at the number of 3s we took and the fact that we took less 2s than 3s, that’s not us, not how we play. We got to be consistent and we’re working to get better. Tonight was a good first step. I thought it was good that the players had the right mindset after the loss. And losses can be a really great thing, if you learn from it.”
Salamanca’ Jaxon Crouse (14) looks to drive past a Cleveland Hill defender. Course scored 14 points against the Golden Eagles. (Salamanca Warrior Athletics)
On the defensive end, the Salamanca players tormented Cleveland Hill with its traps, rotations and fast-break offense going the other way.
“I thought our ball-screen defense was better and I thought our switch game was much better,” Bennett said. “We went back to the fundamentals, and I thought we were more active off the ball, which leads to those transition (buckets) and run-outs. You don’t get those things unless you have great activity off the basketball and I thought we did tonight. I thought we did a pretty good job in coverage trying to stop them doing some of the things that they do well. … We have to care more about stopping the other team from scoring than we do about even putting the ball in the net ourselves. That’s our identity and we got to stick to it.”
Avery Brown epitomized that identity for the Warriors on the night. His game-high 21 points all came from twos and a perfect 5-for-5 line from the charity stripe. Jaxon Crouse finished with 14 points in support, his damage mostly having been done via the transition offense. Salamanca had 11 total players get on the scoresheet, including Payton Bradley, who finished with a total of six. But his tally could have been astronomically higher with the amount of offensive rebounds he grabbed. He just struggled putting those boards back in the bucket. But Bradley’s struggles were far from a major concern for Bennett who is seeing his big man grow every time he steps on the floor.
“He’s working really hard,” Bennett said. “The thing with Payton is, he was a point guard two years ago, then he comes into our program, he gets hurt last year, he misses 12 games, he couldn’t practice. So a lot of his development inside … he hasn’t had a ton of time to do it. He’s relentless on the glass, which I love, he’s a great kid, he’s coachable and we gotta get him finishing at the rim. … He’s working really hard and he’s a huge part of what we do.”
Salamanca’s Maddox Isaac (10) picks off a pass from a Cleveland Hill player. (Salamanca Warrior Athletics)
Bennett was able to get a number of his younger, bench players into the mix on the night. Some even saw the floor in the first quarter alongside some of the more experienced guys on the team. And in terms of their collective performance, he was left satisfied.
“With our league, that’s hard to do because every game is tough,” Bennett said. “So, tonight they got some minutes with the experienced guys. They got some minutes with each other down the stretch and I thought they played well. Positionally, they’re a lot better. They’re new to this whole thing, but they practice against really, really good players every day. So our expectation is, when they go on the court, they show that, and I thought they did tonight.”
Salamanca will look to ride the momentum of the big win into its penultimate game of the regular season, its final league game, away at Dunkirk on Feb. 18 which will tip-off at 6:30 p.m.
AT SALAMANCA
Cleveland Hill (33)
Nelson 5 7-8 18, Rhooms-Westbrooks 3 0-2 8, Stoj 2 0-0 4, Thomas 1 0-2 3, Hunt 0 0-2 0. Totals: 11 7-14 33
Salamanca (74)
Brown 8 5-5 21, Crouse 5 4-5 14, Isaac 4 0-0 8, Herrick 3 0-0 7, Bradley 3 0-2 6, Hill 2 0-0 5, Holleran 2 0-0 4, Elliott 1 0-0 3, Drugg 0 2-2 2, Farmer 1 0-0 2, Taylor 1 0-0 2. Totals: 30 11-14 74
CH 4 13 24 33
Sala. 19 42 62 74Three-point goals: CH 4 (Rhooms-Westbrooks 2, Nelson, Thomas), Sala. 3 (Herrick, Hill, Elliott); Total fouls: CH 16, Sala. 14; fouled out: Stoj (CH).
