SALAMANCA — The Warriors started the first and fourth quarters on fire, but what happened in between kept the Salamanca boys basketball team from a chance to end the regular season on a third straight victory.
Isaac Brown drained three-pointers on back-to-back possessions for a 6-0 lead, but Salamanca went dry for much of the first half and trailed Southwestern 26-18 at halftime. The dry spell continued into the third as Southwestern extended a 40-23 lead until Salamanca finally put together a run, scoring the first nine points of the fourth quarter.
Salamanca couldn’t keep that pace up, however, and settled for a 56-45 loss, closing the regular season 7-13 (5-5 in non-league play).
“I think because we made our first two we tried to become a three-point shooting team, which we’re not,” admitted SHS coach Adam Bennett. “In the second and third quarters, I thought we got to the basket much better and we didn’t finish the easy ones. But in order for us to be successful, we have to work it from inside out.
“We can’t try to swing it around the perimeter and beat people on step-back threes or quick-shot threes,” he added. “When we play inside out, we’re pretty good, but early in the game I thought we got too complacent and second and third quarters we did a better job.”
Hercules Rasha led Salamanca with 26 points and 11 rebounds, while Ira John had eight rebounds. The Warriors struggled to take advantage at the free throw line, shooting 9-for-17.
Alex Card paced the Trojans (13-7) with 19 points on five three-pointers.
“It’s hard for us to play with their physicality,” Bennett said of Southwestern, which also beat Salamanca 58-41 in Lakewood in December. “They’re really tall, they’re very physical. They played us zone. We missed a lot of easy ones throughout the game that kind of dug us a hole but we kept battling. They do a good job offensively, we tried to switch things up defensively and they were able to get to the basket a couple times. It’s just hard. They wear you down. It was good to make a run in that fourth quarter, we’ve just got to do a better job at the start of the game.”
Sectional point standings project Salamanca as a No. 12 seed in Class C, with Portville No. 13, setting up a fourth matchup with the Panthers if seedings hold through Saturday morning.
Salamanca beat Portville a third time last Friday, their second league meeting after playing in the Joe DeCerbo Memorial Tournament in December. The Warriors followed that league finale up with a 70-48 non-league win over Pine Valley in a rematch of a 50-47 loss on a December buzzer-beater.
“There’s no question we’re better,” Bennett said of the last week of the season. “Our guys are developing. What I like is after that Silver Creek game (94-49 loss) we played really hard and really for the majority of the season, our effort’s been outstanding. But now we have to put it together in the playoffs. We’ve got a big challenge, we’re probably going to get Portville again for the fourth time, which is hard. The winner of that game gets Silver Creek, another league team. So we have to show off now how much better we’ve gotten and if we lay an egg in the playoffs it doesn’t matter.”
Southwestern (56)
Heil 2 4-5 8, Card 7 0-2 19, Pascarella 3 0-0 8, Vezina 0 1-2 1, Munir 1 0-0 3, Matthews 1 0-0 3, Hnatyszyn 2 2-3 6, Pannes 3 2-3 8. Totals: 19 9-15 56.
Salamanca (45)
Hedlund 2 0-0 4, McKenna 0 2-2 2, Siebert 1 0-0 2, Chiemara 1 0-2 2, Rasha 9 6-11 26, Brown 3 0-0 8, Taylor 0 1-2 1. Totals: 16 9-17 45.
Southwestern 10 26 40 56
Salamanca 6 18 23 45
Three-point goals: Southwestern 9 (Card 5, Pascarella 2, Munir, Matthews), Salamanca 4 (Rasha 2, Brown 2). Total fouls: Southwestern 14, Salamanca 15. Fouled out: None.
JV: Southwestern, 46-42.
