Manchester Central boys basketball starts fast, cruises to win over Salem

SALEM - Dave Keefe wasn't sure how his Manchester Central High School boys basketball team would handle having to sit through Salem's senior night festivities before the start of Tuesday's game.

Based on the results, it looks like the Little Green were just fine.

Central used suffocating defense and a lethal transition game to lead by as many as 28 points in the first half on the way to a 63-43 win over Salem in Division I action.

Three players scored in double figures for the Little Green (12-5), as Kyler Bosse led the way with 15 points while Jesus Milan added 11 points and Antoine Revere recorded 10. Erik Rodirquez also had nine points for Central, which used an 11-2 run in the first quarter to take a 24-8 lead after one.

"I think the difference was they came out right off the bat," Keefe said. "I wasn’t sure how they were going to respond to Salem having their senior night. In warmups, you watch them, and I’ve been doing this for 30 something years, are they ready to go or not? They came right out with a bang. They set the tone as we’d asked in our pregame talk and speech. They just got after it."

And Central never let up in the first half. Bosse made it a 21-point lead for the Little Green, 35-14, with a three-point play and then after a missed shot by Salem, the senior finished off the break with a dunk over Salem's Nicholas Hayes. The Blue Devils (8-9) turned the ball over 11 times in the first half.

"They were tougher than us early and we didn’t respond very well," Salem coach Rob McLaughlin said. "I thought we got better in the second half for whatever reason. We just had more bounce in our step, more energy. When we watch this film, that’s what we should aspire to do from a defensive standpoint. They’re a talented group, they’re quick and athletic, but you’ve got to set a mindset going in. They did that right off the bat to us and we didn’t respond the way we had hoped."

Kyle Poulin led Salem with 12 points while Anthony Traficante came off the bench to score all nine of his points in the second half. James Hayes added five points.

Central turned the ball over on its first possession, but then got back-to-back layups from Ding Niyang and Yansel Reyes, the second of which was part of a three-point play. McLaughlin could see the Blue Devils weren't responding well and took two timeouts in the first four minutes of the game.

"The defense is our go-to guy," Keefe said. "We work on that 30 or 40 minutes every day and that’s what makes us good. If we get some stops, some deflections, some steals, and then it’s go, go, go. That worked (Tuesday). There are some lapses at times, but they’re playing tough defense."

Salem was able to get within seven, 13-6, on a jumper by Poulin with 2:53 left in the first, but Rodriguez answered at the other end with another three-point play to start the Little Green on an 11-2 run to end the frame.

Central pushed the lead to 45-19 at halftime, moments after by going up 28 points, and midway through the third quarter, the lead stretched to 30 points.

"It’s going to be physical and they’re going to get into you," McLaughlin said. "They’re going to make you uncomfortable. I think some of our (younger) guys might have been shocked by that. We had a lot of time to respond. I was disappointed with the way we responded."