Revere defeats Salem in battle for first in NEC North

REVERE- February is turning out to be a good month for teams called the Patriots.
Tiphani Harris scored a game-high 14 points and Meaghan Gotham added 10 to lead the Revere High girls’ basketball team to a 41-32 win over Salem Friday night at the Roland A. Merullo Field House.
The victory puts the Patriots (13-2) in prime position to win the Northeastern Conference/North division title, while the loss all but eliminates Salem (11-4). Revere can nail down the divisional championship with a win at Beverly on Monday. The Panthers beat the Patriots by three points earlier in the season.
?I’m proud of what the team has accomplished and it’s a reward for how hard they’ve worked in practice,” Revere coach Diana DeCristoforo said. “They’ve come together as a team.”
The Witches were led by Jaclyn Panneton with 12 points, while Rachael Zipper added nine.
?They’re a very good team,” Salem coach John Fortunado said of Revere. “They have size, they have players who can shoot and they have good guards. They’re a heck of a team.”
Both teams struggled with their offense, especially in the first quarter, which ended with Salem ahead, 7-4. Nicole Sadaway hit a three-pointer from the left wing with 6:08 left in the second quarter, which gave the Witches what turned out to be their largest lead of the game at 10-5.
With Harris asserting herself down low, Revere slowly took command, outscoring Salem, 12-4, for the rest of of the half. A free throw by Adanna Hector put the Patriots ahead for the first time since early in the first quarter, and a five-footer by Valentina Pepic made the score 17-14 at halftime, with Revere on top.
Sparked by two baskets from Gotham, Revere opened the second half with a 7-0 run to take its first double-digit lead at 24-14 with 5:26 left in the third quarter. Salem answered with a 15-footer from Zipper and a couple of free throws by Sadoway to cut the lead back down to six.
But Harris and Ally Hinojosa came right back with layups to push the lead back up to 10, before Salem’s Emily Farbre converted to make the score 29-21 at the end of the third quarter.
Salem came within seven when Zipper swished a three-pointer from the left elbow with 7:07 left in the game, but the Witches got no closer. Harris converted a nice feed from Hector, who made a free throw with 2:03 left to give Revere its largest lead of the night at 40-28.?We struggled a bit offensively tonight, but you have to attribute a lot of that to the way Salem played defense tonight,” DeCristoforo said. “The good thing was the girls kept battling.”