WHEELING, WV – The Lady Tigers were back in action today as they traveled to Wheeling to take on the Cardinals of Wheeling University. Salem entered the match at 1-4 coming off a tough overtime loss to West Liberty on the Tigers home court.
Elena Pericic, who had a great game against West Lib, opened up the scoring for the Tigers with an early layup off a dime from guard, Teodora Popovic. The connection between those two has been prevalent all season for Salem. Through the majority of the first quarter, neither team seemed to be willing to budge, trading blows like heavyweights in a title fight. In the last thirty seconds of play Wheeling nailed a jumper from deep and followed that up with a steal which led to a fastbreak layup giving the Cardinals a five-point advantage after one 18-13.
Salem opened the second quarter with a 4-0 run after allowing a layup to the Cardinals in the first two minutes to cut the deficit to three. Wheeling responded with a 14-o run of their own to double up the Tigers at 34-17 with under three and a half minutes to play in the half. The Tiger offense just could not find their footing in the second, scoring only eleven points to go into the half down 44-24.
As the second half got underway Salem knew they had to make something happen soon before it got out of hand for them. The defense stepped up, holding the Cardinals to just fifteen points, but the offense continued to struggle. The Cardinal’s hot shooting remained a big factor for them as they knocked down two triples in the third which helped them extend their lead to twenty-one after three-quarters of play at 59-38.
The Tigers opened the fourth quarter with a 5-0 run within the first minute of play to put a scare in the Cardinals. Wheeling answered back with another triple, this time courtesy of Bryana Fairman, to stop the Tiger run. The Tiger defense could not come up with an answer for Wheeling. After a rough first half, Salem was never able to cut the deficit to single digits. The Cardinals took home the victory on their home court going into the holiday with a final score of 85-56.
The Tigers will be back on their home court after getting the week off on November 29th when they’ll play host to the Mountain Lions of Concord University who are 3-2 on the year. The game will tip off at 5:30 PM.