The opening night of the 74th Salem Invitational Tournament is in the books.
The Salem Wildcats saw their record fall to 11-10 with a disappointing loss to Mattoon 62-45. No Wildcat was in double figures. Payton Gullion led Salem with 8, Logan Butts and Ryegan Warren had 7 each and both pulled down 5 rebounds, Avery Gullion had 6 points and 4 blocked shots. Kaeden Bevolo finished with 4. Salem falls to the first consolation semifinal on Saturday against Champaign Central after the Maroons dropped the first game of the night to Centralia.
The defending champion Orphans looked like a well-oiled machine even without senior leader Devin Meier as they dominated from start to finish in the 66-40 running clock win. Centralia hit 8 of their 9 three pointers in the first half. Reigning MVP, sophomore Archie Goewey had 16 points to lead the Orphans along with fellow sophomore Kenny Bratton. Michael Organ was also in double figures with 11 and Jaxson Hancock played very well at the point guard position and scored 9. Kruz Jackson had 8. Cadeyn Love had 20 in the loss for the Maroons.
It’s night 2 tonight with both games again aired on WJBD. The night begins at 6pm with 16-2 and 2nd ranked TTown taking on 7-12 Carbondale followed at 7:30 by 15-3 and 9th ranked Mt Vernon playing 1-7 Gateway Legacy.
