This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Salem Tops Canton in KLAA Tournament

Rocks overcome 7-point deficit at half to defeat their cross-park rival.

The Salem and Canton High School boys basketball teams were close in every aspect Thursday night, including their tournament ranking, with Canton at the No. 2 seed and Salem the No. 3 seed in the Kensington Lakes Activities Association Kensington Conference tournament.

The Chiefs jumped out to a hot start, leading 23-11 at one point in the second quarter. At halftime, Canton led 24-17.

The second half, however, was a different story. Salem's offense exploded, and they climbed back into the game, scoring a total of 41 points in the second half. By the end of the third quarter, the Rocks had grabbed the lead, 38-36.

Find out what's happening in Plymouth-Cantonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Though the two rivals traded buckets in the fourth, Salem earned a 58-50 victory by making more crucial baskets, including several late 3-pointers from juniors Grant Bettner and Tyler Stewart.

"They just started falling for us," Salem junior Ryan Jankowski said. "We're a fast-paced team. We were playing their game — a low-scoring game [in the first half], and that's why they were beating us. We stepped up the pressure in the second half — that helped us turn it around."

Find out what's happening in Plymouth-Cantonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Chiefs, however, felt they could have stopped the Rocks with better defense.

"We stopped covering, we stopped contesting (3-pointers), and they started making them," Canton senior Ben Spreitzer said.

"They hit a couple open shots and we just kept our heads down," he said. "We couldn’t get back in it. We dug ourselves a hole."

The Chiefs don't know who they will play next in the tournament, but Spreitzer says they will "give them a good effort" and "play a whole 32 minutes."

Salem advances to play either Livonia Franklin or Livonia Stevenson on Monday.

"Farther down the tournament, the games get tougher," Jankowski said. "Stevenson got us twice; we know we can get them though."

The Rocks were led in scoring by sophomore Chris Dierker with 13 points. Grant Bettner and Tyler Stewart scored double digits as well, and seniors Zinoviy Pelekh and Ethan Walsh both finished with 9.

Canton's scoring leaders were both seniors: Dietrich Lever had 19 and Paul Baumgart had 14.

Download the movie

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?