• Salem High School
• Basketball
• Sports

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By Josh Lewis, Writer

The Lions basketball team picked up their first win of the season on Saturday night over Mitchell 64-50. Salem’s defense frustrated the Bluejackets all night and allowed them to pull away late to get the win.

Salem came out with a hot shooting hand. Evan Lloyd hit back to back threes from the corner to put the Lions ahead 6-2. Mitchell hit a triple to answer, but a score in the post from Braxton Dean and two threes from Carson Albertson put the Lions ahead 14-10 going into the second quarter.

Lloyd hit another three to open the third quarter and back to back buckets from Kaiden Romero-Hembree pushed the lead out 21-12. But a couple of Salem turnovers opened the door for Mitchell to start chipping away. Ethan Campbell hit a jumper with seconds left in the half to make it 25-19 going into the break.

Romero-Hembree completed an old fashioned three point play and helped Salem stretch their lead back out. Lloyd got a steal and then raced for a layup that pushed the Lions lead to 23-23. But the Bluejackets kept chipping away and hit a layup at the buzzer to cut the Salem lead 42-35 going into the final stanza.

To open the fourth Albertson hit a three, and the Lions defense started creating some chaos for Mitchell. Turnovers allowed Salem to get out and run and get some layups and start putting the game away. Salem built a 58-38 lead late in the fourth as they hit plenty of free throws to hold off any Mitchell rally and seal their first win of the season.

Salem will shoot for their second win of the season when they travel to New Washington on Tuesday night.

MHS scoring: Robertson 9, Chenault 2, Pridemore 10, Mosier 9, Woods 2, Floerke 3, Robinson 13, Goodman 2

SHS scoring: Mull 5, Lloyd 20, Dean 11, Romero-Hembree 15, Albertson 11, Campbell 2

Threes: Pridemore 2, Mosier, Floerke, Lloyd 4, Albertson 3

Evan Lloyd puts up one of his four threes in the game.

• Pekin Eastern High School
• West Washington High School
• Basketball

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By Sammy Nance-Murphy

On Friday, December 6 the West Washington (WW) Senators beat Pekin. The final score of the Varsity game was 57-55 and the J.V. score was 51-24.

The entire team played together to achieve the win. “Overall, everyone who played gave very solid minutes. Silas Batt led us with 15 points and had a big first half for us to get us going. Holden Russell had a great floor game scoring 13 points and dished 11 assists with 0 turnovers. Hayden Morrow and Colton Brown did all the little things and both had several rebounds and steals. Hayden had the biggest rebound of the night, hitting the game-winner off an offensive rebound,” head coach Ashton Minton said.

During halftime, the team talked about what changes needed to be made so they could pull through with a win. “We did a great job of adjusting in the second half and making it difficult for Banet. Credit to him, he had an unbelievable first half so we knew we had to come out and give him a different look. The boys did a great job of adjusting defensively. Two games in a row they have done a great job of executing the adjustments we made during halftime. Hopefully, we can keep that up moving forward,” Minton said.

The Senators will continue to work and improve their gameplay. “We need to continue to get better rebounding and making the right decisions when we have a good lead. Both games we have had a decent lead and haven’t seemed to extend it. Moving forward, we hope to make the right decision every possession and finish off the game and extend the lead instead of letting the other team hang around and keep it close,” Minton said.

The game was tied up 55 to 55, but Hayden Morrow made the game-winning shot at the last second. “I think emotions are different for every person on the bench and on the court during a close game. The more calm and collective a player is, usually the more comfortable they are in those moments. In close games, you want the ball in the hands of a player who keeps their composure no matter the time and score of the game,” said Minton.

On December 13, WW will play Paoli at home, and on December 14 they will play Trinity Lutheran away. The J.V. will start at 6 p.m. for both games.

“This weekend will be our first back-to-back weekend of the season. We have to focus on one opponent at a time and execute from night to night. Paoli will be one of the best and most physical teams we play on our schedule so it will be a good challenge for us early in the season to see where we are. Trinity is another good opponent on back-to-back nights. They will play a different style than Paoli so we will have to play multiple styles and speeds in both games,” Minton said.

• Salem High School
• Football
• Awards & Recognition
• Special Events

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Salem Lions Football held their annual banquet on Sunday, December 8, and many players went home with awards:

Most Valuable Player: Adam Mull

Mental Attitude: Noah Deaton

Most Valuable Offensive Player: Logan Dent

Most Valuable Defensive Player: Noah Daulton

Most Valuable Special Teams Player: Seth Ponsford

Most Valuable Lineman: C.J. Ward

Most Valuable Back: Braxton Dean

Most Valuable J.V. Player: Adler Cox

Congratulations on the awards!