By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The Salem Academy Boys Basketball team had to find a way to get it done against rival Blanchet Catholic on Wednesday night in PacWest Conference play.
The Cavailers had just clawed back into the game. Once down ten earlier in the second half, the Crusaders trailed Salem Academy 52-50 with 4:08 remaining in the game. Blanchet just drew the Crusaders within reach after Christian Orozco split a pair of free throws in the game.
It was a tough game. Salem Academy’s shots were falling, the Cavs had a tough time finding consistency with there’s, but as the game entered the twilight. The pressure was there to execute in crunch time.
In a game in which both squads were tied for first in the PacWest Conference with two league defeats, a win in this game would give the winner the advantage for the top-seed entering the league playoffs here in about two weeks.
That was when the Crusaders responded. They found their groove again on both sides of the ball as they began to rebuild their lead.
“We wanted to show what kind team we are. We’re resilient and here for the competition. We strive for it, that’s why we play the game. We want to be in this game, we want to show that we can overcome like we did. Play our whole hearts out and it shows that,” said Salem Academy’s Seth Duman, who finished with eight points in the game. “We got lackadaisical, but that’s something we got to sure up because throughout the whole game we were doing great. We got room to improve. Our offense, our defense, but we just got to work harder and get better overall.”
Blanchet struggled to respond. Salem Academy were just too streaky on this night with their shots, and with their defense, it made it hard for the Cavailers to find any sort of groove as they’ve had in prior games. The Crusaders would close the game on a 14-2 run to seal the 66-52 road victory, and now control their own destiny with the number one seed in conference entering the PacWest Conference League Playoffs.
“In the third quarter they made a good run and if we kept that up, we could’ve done well. They were just too tough from the three-point line for us,” said Blanchet Head Coach Hans Rasmussen. “We’ll most likely see them again in the playoffs. When we do, we’ll just have to learn from it and figure out how to have a solution for their guards. We have two games that we have to take care of before we get there.”
Noah Burns led the Crusaders with 17 points. Chayse Mothersbaugh contributed another 15 points for Salem Academy, who will be at Santiam Christian on Friday. Sam Mosar led Blanchet with 21 points with Adam Barnett contributed another 11 points as the Cavs will too play Santiam Christian on the road, but on Tuesday.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
