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DURHAM | The Salem crowd's victory chants at UNH's packed Lundholm Gym started with more than two minutes still remaining in yesterday's Class L championship game.
 
"Undefeated, undefeated!" was followed by "Worse than last year!"

That pretty much summed up Salem's resounding 66-45 romp over Trinity that gave the Blue Devils (22-0, 24-1 overall) their second straight Class L crown and marked their 32nd straight victory in Class L.

In contrast to last year's nail-biting, buzzer-beating 54-51 title victory, this was all but over midway through the third quarter and, partly for that reason, was even more rewarding for head coach E.J. Perry, who has now won six state titles (four in volleyball) in the last four years at Salem.

"This is twice as nice," said Perry. "Last year, at least the prognosticators gave us a chance, but everyone was picking us as the fifth to eighth best team this year. We weren't considered very good.

"I think our players will have to get a little respect now. I was on the radio the other day and someone was asking me about winning without a marquee player. But I feel we have at least two marquee players with Josh (Jones) and (Mike) Kimball and we've got some awfully good role players."

After a shaky first quarter, in which Trinity (19-3 in Class L) took a 16-11 lead, led by eight points from senior guard Ryan Bourgeois, that was only too evident.

Trailing 16-8, Jones buried a 3-pointer to close the first quarter and then scored eight more points to start the second quarter, giving Salem a lead it would never give up. After scoring just two points in the Class L semifinal win over Manchester Central, Jones finished with a game-high 19 points.

"As far as I'm concerned, Josh Jones is the best player in the state and I've been saying that all along," said Perry. "We needed a lift and he came through when we needed it."

Yet Jones, a 6-foot-3 junior, wasn't any more impressive than Kimball, who followed his 23-point semifinal effort with a superb all-around game, finishing with 17 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists. His 3-pointer at the buzzer gave Salem a 30-25 halftime lead and he was at his best in the decisive third quarter.

Ahead 32-28 early in the second half, Kimball sparked a 20-6 run that put the game away. In that span, he had two 3-pointers, eight points overall and three assists, two of them on beautiful pick-and-rolls to Shawn Stoodley (13 points, 14 rebounds).

"I've been doing that (pick-and-roll) with Shawn and (Dan) Kinney for four years," said Kimball. "We've perfected it. It worked the first time we tried it so we kept doing it."

Stoodley, who was huge on the boards in the second half, played a significant role in what became a blowout. But so did the other members of Salem's "Solid Six," a rotation made possible by versatile sixth man Kevin Sledge. No other Blue Devil played until the waning minutes.

In addition to Stoodley's blue-collar work underneath, senior classmate Kinney contributed eight points, 12 rebounds and some wicked screens, Sledge had four points and was a demon on defense and point guard Josh Frederico added four points and some fine defense on Bourgeois, who led Trinity with 18 points but only had one field goal in the second half.

"Our motto has always been 'we before me,' and I think you saw that today," said Perry. "I don't know if that was the best game we played all year, but it was the best (second) half. Everyone was contributing."

Trinity coach Dave Keefe could only credit the Blue Devils for a game that got out of hand in the second half.

"They did a real nice job on the boards and that really hurt us," said Keefe, who played his college ball at Merrimack. "They did a lot of nice things and we didn't handle it very well."