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Kimball carries Salem into final

Thursday, March, 13 By Alan Siegel
Staff writer

DURHAM, N.H. | Mike Kimball had a premonition.

It was time to break out, to bounce back.

"I was in a slump," he said. "I knew I was going to have a big game."

The 6-foot-1 guard-forward was the best player on the floor last night, scoring a game-high 23 points to go along with eight rebounds. He almost single-handedly lifted Salem into its second straight Class L final.

"Kimball did what I thought he was going to do. I knew what type of player he was," Salem coach E.J. Perry said. "I've seen him put up 31 before. I knew he'd bring it tonight."

After scoring eight points against Manchester Memorial in the first round, then 12 against Pinkerton (on 5-of-14 shooting), Kimball was hungry for more.
Everybody seemed to know it.

"He knew it, too," senior Kevin Sledge said.

It's been an emotional couple of months for Kimball, whose grandfather Robert passed away in January after a long battle with diabetes. A big basketball fan, he attended as many of Mike's games as he could. The last one, Mike said, was Salem's victory in the Class L title game last March.

"He's always in our hearts," Kimball said. "Ever since he's passed away, I've dedicated the year to him."

Last night was a stirring tribute. Kimball hit three 3-pointers and went 6 of 10 from the free-throw line. He even made the biggest defensive play of the game, a leaping block of Michael Stys that preserved a 44-42 Salem lead with less than 30 seconds to play.

Kimball's big defensive play provoked a fairly predictable reaction.

"Thank God," he said. "I let (Stys) go by me a little bit. I don't even know ..."
The Salem coaching staff, Kimball said, was instrumental to the performance.
"Before the game, (Perry) was just telling me how real shooters don't think about the last shot," Kimball said. "They think about the next one."

The coaches gave me the confidence to keep shooting. I've been in a little slump. They knew I was going to have a big game."  

Junior Josh Jones needed no prompting to compliment his classmate. Jones, a normally high-scoring guard | he came into last night averaging 16.5 points per game | only scored two points last night. Kimball was there to pick him up.

"He was sticking (shots) everywhere," Jones said. "He kept us in the game in the first half."

Kimball scored nine of his 23 points in the first half. Salem struggled mightily at the outset. He saved the Blue Devils early, then saved them late, hitting two big treys after halftime.

"We played terrible in the first half," Kimball said, "but we were still in it. We came out as hard as we could (in the second). We weren't going to end the season like that."
Afterward, outside the Blue Devils' temporary locker room in the basement below Lundholm Gymnasium, Perry smiled when asked about Kimball.

"He hit those big shots in the second half. He just carried us," Perry said. "He's just a vocal, emotional leader. I can't ask for a kid with more courage and fortitude."

But again, everybody expected this. It was his time, after all. Just ask his teammates.
"I knew he was going to come back strong," Sledge said. "He's that type of player."

Additional stories:

• Wake-up Call : Salem erases 12-point deficit and moves on to title game