By BOB ALBRIGHT
BEVERLY - Depth is a deadly thing on the basketball court and top seeded Salem found that out the hard way last night at a packed Beverly field house as the Witches were upset by No.12 Brighton in the Div. 2 North semifinals, 84-68.
Like so many higher seeds before them, the Witches simply had no answer for the waves of talented players Brighton coach Hugh Coleman kept sending at them.
“I had seen Salem play three times and they are a great group with great chemistry, but I noticed that they only played about five guys,” said Coleman. “We’ve got 15 if we want to. We wanted to go to the bench, push the tempo, and tire them out.”
Add some early Salem foul trouble into the equation and Brighton was sitting pretty at the half up 49-28 when Tyrone Perry drained a three at the buzzer. The Witches would close it to 14 at the end of three, but could never get closer than 10 with just under two minutes to play.
“The (foul trouble) hurt,” said Salem coach Tommy Doyle.”We had some guys we could go to, but I think we just ran out of gas.”
Brighton (16-8) will now play familiar foe No.2 New mission Saturday for the sectional title.
In all, 15 players hit the court for Brighton and eight scored led by junior Jordan Galloway (23 points) who was nearly unconscious in the first half with 20 points and four threes. The final half belonged to sophomore Mykel Derring (17 points), who put the nail in this one with with four threes in the fourth quarter.
“I just told Mykel to shoot it with confidence and he knocked down some big shots for us in the second half,” said Coleman,
Playing in his final game for the Witches (20-3), Alex Sanchez led all scorers with 28, while sophomore Ricky Arias added 17.