The Salem High girls ran their basketball winning streak to 10 in a row with two more wins last week. The Spartans are now 17-1 and haven’t lost to a team in the state of Virginia.
Salem played Lord Botetourt in Daleville last Wednesday, January 21, and the Cavaliers gave the Spartans a good game in a low-scoring affair. Botetourt led 18-16 at the half before the Spartans rallied for a 42-31 win.
“Defensively, we followed the game plan and really tried to just focus on containing them,” said LB coach Renee Favaro. “Offensively, we just struggled to put the ball in the basket, but we cut our turnovers in half from our first outing against them.”
Emme Custer and Gabby Crawley had 16 points each as they scored all but 10 of Salem’s points and combined for 13 rebounds. It was probably the kind of game Salem needed, as the Spartans have won by large margins in most of their games and will get tougher tests in the post-season.
“Gritty road win for us,” said Salem coach Scott Jester. “Played a tough team while down a starter so it was a good challenge for us to have to work through and figure some things out. Strong defensive effort all night.”
On Friday at home the Spartans hosted Cave Spring and breezed to a 56-19 win. Custer had 26 points, Crawley had 11 and Kourtney Goens had 11 points and 10 rebounds.
“We did a really good job getting the ball inside,” said Jester. “We had 40 points in the paint and 18 assists on 24 made field goals.”
Salem is at Hidden Valley on Friday.
