ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
Saugus’ Krissy Italiano and Salem’s Stephanie Cantone reach for a rebound, while Salem’s Alexis Cicco holds back Saugus’ Molly Granara.
By MIKE ALONGI
SALEM — After falling behind by as many as 13 points in the first half, the Saugus girls basketball team rallied on the road to open the season with a 47-30 win over the Salem Witches at Veterans Memorial Field House on Thursday night. The key to the win was hard work and mental toughness, according to Saugus coach Mark Schruender.
“The kids overcame adversity tonight,” he said. “They stayed together, stayed true to themselves and stayed mentally tough, and that was really the key tonight. We have a lot of mentally tough kids on this team.”
Senior captain Olivia Valente led the way for Saugus, putting up a double-double with 13 points and 16 rebounds. Another senior captain, Krissy Italiano, just missed a double-double after finishing with eight points and 11 rebounds. Freshman Taylor Bogdanski provided a spark off the bench with six points and six rebounds, while junior Allie Kotkowski, sophomore Alessia Salzillo and freshman Molly Granara each notched six points.
For Salem, junior captain Emily Fabre had 11 points and two rebounds and senior captain Alexis Cicco had seven points and three rebounds. Junior Chrishae Dunston had six points and four rebounds, freshman Stephanie Cantone had four points and four rebounds and junior captain Wildarys Correa had two points and six rebounds.
“I loved the way the kids came out, they had a great start,” said Salem coach John Fortunato. “But Saugus was really able to come out strong in the second half and give us some trouble. Give a lot of credit to them, they played a great game.”
The Witches came out strong in the first quarter, taking an early lead behind some great defense and shotmaking. At that point, Schruender knew he had to change some things up on both ends.
“We switched things up early,” said Schruender. “Salem’s full-court break gave us fits in the first quarter, and they’re a pretty smart team. But our kids stayed tough and continued to adjust on the fly to whatever Salem was doing, which was great.”
It worked, as the Sachems only gave up 12 points for the rest of the game. Not only that, but the strong rebounding combination of Valente and Italiano afforded Saugus plenty of second-chance opportunities.
“That’s nothing new,” Schruender said of the duo’s rebounding prowess. “Olivia averaged 10 (rebounds) per game last year and Krissy was right up there too, and that’s what they do. We don’t have to do too many rebounding drills with them in practice.”
Saugus cut the deficit to just six points by the end of the first half, and then came out with some full-court press defense in the second half. At first, Salem was able to fight through the press and still make shots to hold the lead. But eventually, Saugus was able to force some turnovers and continue to cut into the lead. By the end of the third quarter, it was a one-point game at 28-27 Salem.
The fourth quarter is where everything came together for Saugus and everything fell apart for Salem. The press defense began to really wear on the Witches, who started to turn the ball over more and more. Meanwhile, Saugus started hitting a bunch of shots to take the lead.
“We have a very young team, and the strong press began to really affect them as the game went on,” said Fortunato. “(Saugus) was switching things up constantly on defense, and we just couldn’t adjust quickly enough.”
The Sachems only gave up two points defensively in the fourth quarter and they scored 20, surging ahead to seal the victory.
Both teams will have the weekend off before getting back into action early next week. The Sachems will host Gloucester at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, while Salem will take on Swampscott at home at 7 p.m.