Manchester Central girls basketball gets tough in win over Salem
The Manchester Central High School girls basketball team was in need of some toughness.
SALEM – The Manchester Central High School girls basketball team was in need of some toughness.
Fortunately, Little Green coach Mike Wenners was able to find some on his bench.
After getting pushed around early in Friday’s season opener against Salem, Wenners put senior Mikahya Kirby and junior Keltina Francis on the floor and the pair helped Central turn up the physical play.
The pair combined for 16 points off the bench, while Hannah McGrath led all scorers with 17 points and Jenna Chrabolowki added 12 to lead Central to a 58-39 win over Salem in the Division I opener.
The Blue Devils took an early lead, but after a timeout, the Little Green went on a 13-0 run to take control of the game and answered every Salem run in the second half to pick up a convincing road win.
“It’s always great to start the season with a win, especially on the road at Salem,” Wenners said. “The first four minutes, we came out and kind of allowed them to push us around a little bit. I think that’s why we struggled a little early. About halfway through, when we got Mikahya (Kirby) and Keltina (Francis) out there, we were able to be a little more physical, that’s when our game started to take off.”
The Blue Devils had an 8-4 lead midway through the first following a 3-pointer by Kayleigh Greenfield. Wenners called a timeout after that, and whatever the coach said worked, as the Little Green answered back with the run, going up 17-8 on a 3 by McGarth.
“Any teams that are physical, we have to match it,” Wenners said. “We didn’t those first four minutes and later on we did. I think if we continue to get better like (Friday) throughout the game, we’ll be better with it.”
Central (1-0) led by nine at halftime, and after Salem (0-1) closed to within six in the third, the Little Green closed the quarter with a 9-2 run to take a 44-29 lead into the final eight minutes.
Alysha Beauchesne led the Blue Devils with 10 points and Emily Doucette added nine, all from behind the 3-point line, but Salem coach Ricky Oliver wanted to see more scoring in his first game coaching the team.
“We have to score,” said Oliver, who came to Salem after coaching at Nashua North. “We can’t have single-digit quarters. We were stiff. It’s the first game with my coaching and they really haven’t seen that type of coaching. We were slow. I like up-tempo.”
Salem got the lead back into single digits to open the fourth, as Beauchesne and Doucette hit back-to-back 3s to make it 44-35. But Central answered with six straight points in transition to go back up by 15.
“We did a nice job passing the ball,” Wenners said. “We were good making that extra pass. That’s the type of stuff we can do well, get up and down the floor, when we rebound the basketball. You saw that as a result of rebounding and defense.”
Central is back in action on Tuesday, as it heads to Hampton to face Winnacunnet, while Salem goes on the road to play at Dover on Wednesday.
