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Peabody survives late Salem scare

The Tanners outlasted Salem last night 56-53 in overtime to send their fans home happy from the Veterans Memorial fieldhouse.

Peabody controlled last nights action for the first three quarters, 39-25, without much resistance from Salem as both teams looked to pick up their first win of the young season. "We played great defensively in the first half. Anytime you hold a talented team like that to 11 points for a half that's great," said Peabody's head coach Chris Mastrangelo.

"However, even though we were up 13 at the half we felt like it should have been 20 or more as we took a lot of bad shots and missed some easy one's as well."

The Witches found new life in the fourth quarter and came two points short in the period of doubling their total from the previous three.

Salem's Junior Lugo scored 11 points in the second half, 18 overall, while Chris Dunston scored all of his 11 points in the second half and overtime.

"I felt like we really buckled down the stretch, we were up 10 with 5:27 left and let it slip away. Salem did a great job of turning up the pressure and our young team didn't quite respond the way we had hoped," said Mastrangelo.

Senior Kevin Skop showed his experienced leadership in the final frames as netted 12 of his 17 points during the last two periods. Junior Mark Linehan also added six of his 12 points in the overtime frame to lift the Tanners.

"I was really proud of how are team stepped up in overtime," Mastrangelo said. "We felt another one slipping away, but unlike our last, game we grabbed it this time."