RallyNorth.net

Freshman Reyes sparks late Salem rally past Beverly

Friday, February, 15 By Bill Kipouras
Staff writer

Antonio Reyes has the poise of a Scoonie Penn or a Rick Brunson at the freshman level | and that's not a reach. The 6-foot all-star and pride of Prospect Street is probably the best fresman prospect to wear the Salem High Witches uniform since Erik Groszyk.

Last night he put forth a terrific effort, scoring a career high 29 points, making seven steals and pulling down nine rebounds to join Junior Lugo in leading a 78-74 comeback victory over arch-rival Beverly last night.

"This one was huge. Coach (Tom Doyle) told us a win could mean a home game in the (Division 2 North) state tournament," Reyes said after his Witches rallied from a big hole to pull out the win over their rivals. They didn't have the lead until there was just 5:19 remaining (59-57).

"We came back on them in Beverly (last month), and we had the confidence from that game that we could do it again. We were down a long time tonight, but nobody hung their heads," Salem's Brian Ortiz added.

Reyes, who was 12-for-19 from the floor (much of it from the baseline) and Lugo (21 points) were inspirational in the second half. Reyes had 19 after the break; Lugo 17. That's 36 of Salem's 45 second-half points.

Ortiz had 13 points, four assists and did a great job on Beverly's Nate Knudson (7 points). Chris Dunston contributed nine boards and Danny Byors came off the bench for six timely points for the 13-5 Witches.

Not only was Knudson held down offensively, but Beverly's main force, Matt Tobin, ran into early foul trouble ("it hardly seemed he played," Beverly (12-6) coach Scott Lewis said) and ended up with seven points.

Part of it was that Salem focused its defense on Tobin, one of the best players in the Northeastern Conference. The Witches used a three-man rotation on Tobin and the Salem guards doubled up down low, hoping to knock the ball out of his hands.

The Witches won it without recent 41-point scorer Chris Maxson, who sat on the bench in street clothes. "No comment," Doyle said on Maxson's DNP-coaches' decision. Maxson had 20 in Salem's previous win at Beverly.

Matt McQuaid was absolutely sensational for Beverly, scoring 23 points and hitting five 3-pointers, every one of them a clutch shot. McQuaid, a 6-foot-2 senior forward, had 21 of his 23 points and was 5-for-6 on trifectas in the latter half.

Brian Skerry had nine rebounds while Ronnie Alford (once of Salem) had eight points and played well. Mike Clayton also had a nice 17-point game for the Panthers, who led 12-9 after one and were up, 35-23, at intermission. But they eventually wilted under Salem's heat on defense, mainly a zone press.

"There was never a time when we felt we had the game," Lewis said. "It's been some time since we've beaten them. Salem's a good team; They know how to win.

"I told the kids at halftime that Salem would make a run at us and press us. We didn't respond well (to the pressure). We had 24 turnovers | and 16 were in the second half."

Skerry and McQuaid responded when Salem went ahead, 69-64, with two minutes left and Knudson made two free throws to pull Beverly even at 70-all. At that point, the visitors missed a layup, and baskets by Byors (on a great feed by Ortiz), Ortiz and Reyes shot Salem ahead again, 76-70, with 25.8 seconds left.

The next two hoops belonged to Beverly as Knudson and Clayton replied to trim Salem's lead to 76-74 with 13.9 seconds to play. But Reyes hit a pair of free throws down the stretch to ice it for the home team.