LYNN – On a night when its biggest gun, Jarell Byrd, was held in check by Salem, it was the rest of the Lynn Classical team that helped pick up the slack.Jasper Grassa finished with 21 points and Cam Smith added 16 as the Rams had to hold off a late fourth quarter charge from the Witches to take a 73-61 win and gain a berth into the Division 1 North tournament.”That’s a good team over there,” Classical coach Tom Grassa said of the Witches. “They have gotten stronger and stronger since losing to English by three in their first game.”It was Classical’s defense that got the job done most of the night, as Nick Grassa and Jared Fay combined in holding Salem guard Brian Ortiz scoreless for the first two and a half quarters and to just eight points total in the game.”The game plan with Nick and Jared was for them to go one period on, one period off in playing man-to-man on Ortiz. They did a great job on him because he can kill you with six or seven threes in a short period of time,” Grassa said.For the Witches, who fell to 9-4, it was a case of letting the Rams get too far out in front thanks to a serious case of shooting woes in the first half.”We missed a lot of shots in the first half and that’s a credit to their defense,” Salem coach Tom Doyle said. “They took us right out of our gameplan.”Salem took an early 4-2 lead in the first quarter before the Rams responded with a 13-2 run, capped by a Jasper Grassa jumper that gave Classical a 15-6 lead. The Witches trimmed the lead back to three before a five point spuirt in the final seconds gave the Rams a 20-12 lead after one.Fay then came up with five of his nine points early in the second quarter to help Classical open up a nine point lead again. Salem would cut the lead back to seven before Fay turned an airball into an easy two that helped send Classical on another run that extended the lead to 37-28 at halftime.”We came out and tried to play zone and they knocked down shots,” Doyle said.Byrd and Smith then opened the second half with back-to-back baskets to extend Classical’s lead to 42-27 and it looked like the Rams were going to run Salem right out of the building. But the Witches began to mount a comeback.Sean Linehan scored six of his 16 points in a two minute stretch that saw Salem whittle the lead back to 42-35. Reyes then finally broke loose from his escort to hit his first basket of the game and cut the lead to 45-40.But that lasted mere moments as Jasper Grassa swished a three to extend the lead back to eight, where it stayed as the third quarter ended.Grassa’s third three pointer of the game early in the fourth quarter helped to start the game’s most entertaining sequence. Antonio Reyes responded with three of his team-high 20 points before Byrd drove to the basket and got the crowd on its feet with a thundering dunk.Not to be out done, Reyes went to the basket at the other end of the floor and threw in a spinning layup that cut Classical’s lead back to 57-51. But Tony Wonde’s basket and a foul helped restore a little order for those fans clad in green and gold.Salem cut the lead to four with 3:30 left before Smith scored back-to-back baskets that got the margin back to eight. Reyes’ rainbow from the right corner cut the lead to six with 1:51 left, setting up the game’s biggest play.With Salem trapping at half court, Reyes nearly forced a steal. But the ball went right to the Rams for a Wonde layup that made it 67-59 with 1:40 left and finally put the Witches down for the count.”Its a great win for us because this was our sixth game in 12 days because of the snow outs,” Grassa said.