Prior to last Thursday you had to go back a ways to remember the last time Salem’s boys beat Northside in basketball. Now, you have to go back to last Thursday.
Salem defeated the Vikings, 78-66, for the Spartans first win over Northside since 2014. The Spartans won the state championship in 2013, beat the Vikings in their first meeting in 2014 and hadn’t beaten them since until last week.
“The last time we beat them Nick Price was a freshman,” said Salem coach Kevin Garst, who has been the Spartan coach every year during that streak except during the COVID season. “All their players were young that year and they really took off after that season.”
Salem led for most of the game in last week’s win. The Spartans were up 24-15 after the first period and 49-38 at the half. Northside clawed back to cut the lead to 58-52 after three quarters but never came closer than four before the Spartans pulled away.
It was a typical Salem-Northside game other than the fact the Spartans won. There was lots of defense and up and down the floor in front of a big crowd and a great atmosphere for an early season game.
“They pressured us, like I knew they would, but we did a good job of handling it and turning it into points,” said Garst. “They were playing a lot of guys who had been in program but were playing behind some others who graduated. They’re going to win a lot of games this year.”
Cam Boles had a big game for the Spartans with 24 points, going 10 of 17 from the floor and hitting all four free throws. He also had nine rebounds and two steals.
Tanner Overstreet led Salem with 11 rebounds as the Spartans held a 34-22 overall edge on the boards. Tanner had eight points guard Jaydius Hamm was seven for eight from the floor in scoring 18. Hamm was four of five from three-point range.
With the win the Spartans improved to 2-0 on the young season. They were weathered out of a game with Mecklenburg on Saturday. Tuesday’s game with Radford was pushed back a day, to Wednesday, and the Spartans have a big River Ridge District game at Patrick Henry on Friday.
