Londonderry boys basketball's zone defense stifles Salem (video)

LONDONDERRY - For the last couple of weeks, the Londonderry High School boys basketball team has been working to build up its zone defense.

Against Salem on Friday, the Lancers took it to another level.

After giving up 14 points in the first quarter, Londonderry held Salem to just nine over the next two, and then broke open a tie game early in the third on the way to a 51-32 win over the Blue Devils in a Division I contest.

"We played really hard," Londonderry coach Jaryd Piecuch said. "Our goal is 50 points or less (allowed) every single game. Our zone, the kids really bought in. They were communicating together, they were bumping each other off, they were working their butts off. It’s a hard zone to play and they are buying into it. It’s great."

Ryan Williams led the way offensively for the Lancers (3-4), scoring eight of his game-high 19 points as part of a 14-0 run to open the second half. Ty Miles had 10 of his 15 points in the second half, as Londonderry outscored Salem 18-4 in the third quarter.

"It was huge," Williams said of the start of the second half. "Coach was talking about that at halftime, how we needed to get in a run and throw the first punch. We did a great job of that, and once we did, we didn’t look back. We just kept pushing and playing great defense."

Matt Luongo added seven points for the Lancers.

The Blue Devils (4-3) got 13 points off the bench from Ryan Morse while Felix Gonzalez had 12 points, including two 3-pointers, all of which came in the first quarter. No one else had more than three points for Salem.

"In the first half, defensively, I thought we were pretty good," Salem coach Rob McLaughlin said. "We held them to 19. I thought the second half, our energy was down and we didn’t come out ready to go. Credit them, they hit a couple of 3s early and came with energy after halftime.

"We didn’t come out ready to fight. That’s on us as coaches and we need to figure out a way to get them ready to go. Once we got smacked in the face, we’ve got to respond better. I don’t think we responded the right way and that showed in our execution and we started getting sloppy."

Salem led 14-11 at the end of the first quarter, and after a 3 by Londonderry's Crosby Nolan tied the game to start the second, the Blue Devils went back in front on a basket by Morse and a 3 by Zachary Sangermano.

That gave Salem a 19-15 lead with 5:11 remaining in the first half and the Blue Devils wouldn't score again until just under four minutes were left in the third.

Londonderry tied the game at 19 going into the half and scored the first 14 points of the second half to take a 33-19 lead. Not only was Salem struggling to score, it was having trouble getting looks and taking shots.

"To be honest, I don’t know," McLaughlin said. "I thought we got hesitant and why that is, I’m not sure. All year, we’ve been shooting the ball pretty well. We haven’t hesitated, we’ve been catch-and-shoot type of guys and it’s been good for us."

The Lancers made some tweaks to the zone after the first quarter, which Piecuch thought was part of the reason Londonderry kept the Blue Devils in check.

"It's a shot-makers game and (Gonzalez) hit two 3s for them in the first quarter," the coach said. "We did switch our alignment a little bit to cover more of the wings. Fortunately for us, they weren’t on (Friday). That’s a great shooting team. I think they hit 14 3s against Bedford in the Christmas tournament, so we got lucky where not much was falling for them."

And as the defense found success, Londonderry was able to turn it into points at the other end.

"If we can play great defense, defense leads to offense," Williams said. "That will help us a lot in the future."