The Salem High girls are hoping to pick up their first win of 2018 when they play host to Blacksburg tonight. Coach Corbitt Hairston is anxious to see if the girls can bounce back after a tough loss to Hidden Valley at SHS Tuesday.

“This is a big game against Blacksburg,” he said. “They play very sound defense and they’re very scrappy. They lost to Hidden Valley, but they held them to 33 points.”

In Salem’s game against Hidden Valley on Tuesday the Titans had 36 at the half. Hidden Valley led 9-3 after the first quarter, then lit up the Spartans for 27 in the second quarter. Meanwhile, Salem’s girls were hustling all over the court but had a tough time finding the hoop.

“We played much better in the second half but by that time the damage was done,” said Hairston, as the Spartans fell 58-30. “We played them about even in the second half, but coach (HV’s Randy) Bush switched up his defense once they got pretty far ahead.”

Maddie Hall led the Spartans with seven points and she also had six rebounds. Katie Evans had six points and Kendra Bolen had four.

With the loss Salem dropped to 2-6 on the season. That’s not great, but considering last year’s team was winless it’s an improvement.

“This year we can play with just about everyone on our schedule,” said Hairston. “We just can’t dig a hole for ourselves like we did against Hidden Valley.

Next Tuesday the Spartans are at Cave Spring to play a much-improved team of Knights.

“Nothing’s going to be easy, but as long as we’re getting better I can live with it,” said Hairston.