SALEM — While Canei Mcleod was hyping up his Salem High boys basketball teammates pregame Tuesday night, he was feeling pretty good about how he’d be performing.
When he stepped up and drained his first shot, a deep three-pointer, that confidence only grew.
The 6-foot-2 sharpshooter scored 16 of his game-high 19 points in the first half, canning a quartet of trifectas as the Witches used a big second quarter push to knock off visiting Peabody, 57-37, at Veterans Memorial Fieldhouse.
“Hitting that first shot, I felt great after that,” said the 18-year-old Mcleod, who also grabbed five rebounds and had three of Salem’s 14 steals. “My teammates gave me confidence, and I kept my head up looking (for shots).”
Now 7-1 on the season, the Witches used an 18-4 second quarter surge to push what had been a three-point advantage after eight minutes to a 19-point bulge by halftime.
Elian Rodriguez, a sophomore and his team’s leading scorer, dropped in a smooth 15 points for the winners while filling out the stat sheet with four rebounds, four assists and two steals. Junior guard Nate Lane was also steady, scoring eight points plus five rebounds, five assists and a trio of thefts.
“Canei has been pretty steady for us all year,” said Salem head coach Tom Doyle. “He’s proven himself; we want to try to get more shots for him and even out our shot selection. He’s done a terrific job stepping up for us and has the green light to shoot that three all day.”
Salem’s aggressiveness on defense forced Peabody (7-5) into a slew of turnovers, both forced and unforced. As a result, the visitors could never get untracked at the offensive end.
“One of the big issues for us was that we couldn’t convert on offense,” admitted head coach Thad Broughton. “It was hard for us to get anything going; their defense was really, really good and forced us into some tough situations.
“I look at our team and see that there’s a lot of improvements we can make from this game,” he added. “But this was a tough one for us tonight.”
No Tanner reached double figures on this night, although senior captain Jariel Tolentino did pace his club with nine points. Aneudy Medrano, another senior, added five, but the Witches limited Peabody’s starters to just 21 points total.
By playing a hard man-to-man defense and trapping them whenever possible, Doyle’s team was trying to put their opponents “in some uncomfortable situations.” By succeeding, that led to defense creating offense for the hosts in terms of steals and fast break layups.
Doyle was happy with the team-wide effort, noting that senior starters Rocco Ryan (5 rebounds, 3 steals) and Josh Giaff Hodge (4 points, 2 assists) “continue to do whatever is necessary to help us” while bench guys like junior guard Darren Taku, senior forward Larell Carpenter, and freshman guard Sean Murphy (5 points) each had strong games.
“We used the first month of the season to try and get comfortable. We had a lot of new faces, and guys have stepped up,” Doyle, whose team hosts Georgetown Thursday, said. “We’re starting to see some improvement and getting comfortable with our D and our offense.
“Now we’re in game mode and preparing each practice for our upcoming games, which we’ll have a lot of over the next month.”
With Northeastern Conference leaders Masco (11-1) coming to Peabody Friday night, Broughton hopes two good days of practice will help turn his team’s fortunes around.
“It’s a question of, ‘How do we bounce back?’,” said Broughton. “We did a nice job of that earlier in the season (starting 0-3 before winning seven straight), so now we’ll have to lean on that experience and do it again.”
Salem 57, Peabody 37
at Salem High Fieldhouse
Peabody — Jariel Tolentino 4-0-9, Mark Mendonca 1-0-3, Thad Broughton 1-0-2, Aneudy Medrano 2-1-5, Jimmy Festa 1-0-2, Dom Domenici 2-0-4, Stephen Brown 0-2-2, Jacob Crocker 0-0-0, Miguel Maria 0-1-1, Anthony Muse 0-0-0, Joseph Smith 0-0-0, Jeremiah Gerard 0-0-0, Noah Crocker 0-0-0, Steven Loris 1-0-3, Aggaest Kalombo 1-0-2, Justin Pais 1-2-4. Totals 14-6-37.
Salem — Nate Lane 3-1-8, Rocco Ryan 0-2-2, Josh Giaff Hodge 2-0-4, Canei Mcleod 7-1-19, Elian Rodriguez 6-0-15, Jack Tsoutsouras 1-0-2, Sean Murphy 2-0-5, Jeyren Estevez 0-0-0, Larell Carpenter 0-0-0, Luis Morel 0-0-0, Darren Taku 0-0-0, Chris Hanson 0-0-0, Cesar Mesa 1-0-2, Darlin Hernandez 0-0-0. Totals 22-4-57. Halftime: Salem, 31-12.
Three-pointers: P, Tolentino, Mendonca, Loris; S, Mcleod 4, Rodriguez 3, Lane, Murphy.
Records: S, 7-1; P, 7-4.
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