SALEM– When a team’s offense isn’t flowing the way it normally does and the shots aren’t falling, other factors have to come into play in order to get a win. Grit and toughness were those factors for the Salem State men’s basketball team in Saturday’s MASCAC Tournament championship game.
The No. 1 Vikings fought off a pesky No. 2 Westfield State team for a 66-57 win at James Twohig Gymnasium. With the win, Salem State punched its ticket to the Division III NCAA Tournament and claimed its 18th MASCAC Tournament championship.
Tournament MVP Sean Bryan led the Vikings with a game-high 18 points and hauled in 10 rebounds. Bryan Martinez scored 16 points with seven rebounds and Hakeem Animashaun scored 11 points with 10 rebounds. Salem State shot 39.7 percent from the floor, down from its season average of 45.1 percent.
“We realized that this was one of those games where we had to make all the small plays,” Vikings coach Chris Harvey said. “That’s what we talked about halftime. We said ‘keep trying to make plays but don’t let your shooting the other things. Still defend, go get a loose ball, go get a rebound. Let those plays carry us.’ We just stuck with it and found a way.”
The Vikings sprinted out to a quick 6-2 lead in the first half, prompting the Owls to use an early timeout. From there, it seemed as though each time the Vikings tried to put Westfield State in a hole, the Owls found a way out of it. Salem State boosted its lead to 16-9 with 11 minutes left in the half but the Owls made it a 3-point game, 18-15, shortly after. Martinez scored five consecutive points and gave the Vikings their first double-digit lead of the game, 29-19, with under three minutes until halftime. Chris MacDonald converted on an and-one to close the half with Salem State holding a 34-24 lead.
The Owls played from behind through the entire second half but they made things interesting. A layup from Justin Rennis with 7:40 remaining made it a 4-point game at 50-46. Christopher Prophet drilled a 3-pointer with 3:14 to play, whittling Salem State’s lead down to a point at 54-53. That was as close as the Owls would get. Martinez hit a much-needed 3-pointer with 2:02 on the clock to bump the lead to 57-53 and the Vikings closed the tilt on a 12-4 run.
“We’re a young team,” Harvey said. “Temi (Bailey) is the only senior on the roster. We didn’t return a starter from last year’s 22-4 team. There’s not one guy that started last year. We had to find ourselves. It’s been a long process and we’re fortunate to cap it off.
“We’ve all been through a lot this season, myself included, off the court. We all stuck together. We tried to have the best locker room we could. I went down the line as the game was ending and said how proud I was of everybody for sticking together and finding a way.”
Salem State (18-9), making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2017, awaits the tournament pairings. They pairings will be announced Monday.
“I know it’s cliche but it really depends on the draw,” Harvey said. “If you get a good draw, you can go in there and do something. We’ll see who we got Monday and we’ll go from there.”
