MARBLEHEAD – Salem began their season by losing its first three games. Since their lackluster start, the Witches rattled off seven consecutive victories and entered Friday night’s border war against Marblehead with a record identical to their opponent’s at 7-3. The winning streak ended abruptly in the home of the Magicians.Led by the three-point shooting of Junior Lugo and Bryan Ortiz, Salem got off to a hot start and a 17-10 advantage at the end of the first quarter. The remainder of the Witches’ game cooled considerably. The Marblehead defense turned it on, holding the Witches to only four points in the second quarter, and built a lead they would only expand upon in its 61-49 win over Salem.”They’re a terrific shooting team and have so many weapons,” said Magician coach Wayne Hanscom. “The guys came around after a slow start. We started hitting some shots and got things going.”Marblehead’s Taariq Allen was the bane of the Witches’ existence.The sophomore scored 12 points, pulled down as many boards, made six deflections and came away with four steals. With a little under one-minute remaining in the second quarter, Allen scored to tie the game at 21.On Salem’s ensuing possession, Allen stole the ball and added another bucket seconds before the half expired to give his team its first lead since the opening moments of the game.The Magicians ended the half on a 13-2 run, outscored the Witches 15-4 in the second quarter and held a halftime lead of 25-21.”Taariq is really coming around,” Hanscom said. “He practices real hard, plays tough D and is developing a nice shot. He has a lot of potential.”Junior Brandon Lee scored a game-high 19 points to go along with three steals and Tom Powers added 14 for Marblehead. Center Damola Abu scored eight, but his contribution was more prevalent on the glass, as he, along with Allen, dominated the boards on both ends of the court. Abu grabbed nine rebounds (five offensive).”We knew it was going to be hard for us to control the boards,” said Salem coach Tom Doyle. “We tried to keep it up-tempo, and they tried to play the power game.”We got off to a good start, but after the first our shots just weren’t falling. They played a real nice zone. We prepared for it all week. We knew it was coming.”The Magicians out rebounded their opponents three-to-two (33-22), and made the most of 17 turnovers by the Witches and poor three-point shooting (eight of 23).With 54.5 seconds left on the game clock, Lugo hit his fourth three of the second half to pull Salem within nine at 54-45. That is the closest they would get. The Witches began fouling on each Marblehead possession there after, but the Magicians took advantage of their chances at the charity stripe in the fourth quarter, hitting 12 of 17 attempts. Seconds before the final buzzer sounded, Lee tipped a long, defensive rebound over the outstretched arms of a Salem player, raced down the court and layed it in to put an exclamation point on the win for Marblehead.”This is the second year in a row they beat us,” Doyle said. “Last year, we went on a nice little run (after the defeat) and went into the tourney. Hopefully, we can learn from this and do the same thing.”Lugo was the Witches high-scorer with 18 points. The guard hit five three-pointers in the defeat. He also added five rebounds, four assists and a steal. Reyes finished with 12, and Chris Dunston scored six to go along with his team-high six boards. Ortiz dropped in eight, all in the first half.The road to the tourney does not get any easier for the Magicians after their victory over Salem. Marblehead will tip-off against Lynn Classical in their next game.