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# Salem girls basketball executed adjustments at right times to beat Goffstown
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/salem-girls-basketball-executed-adjustments-at-right-times-to-beat-goffstown/
- Published: 2019-02-10T16:00:03.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-10T16:00:03.000Z
- Description: The start was almost too good for the Salem High School girls basketball team. The Blue Devils' first two shots of Friday night's 61-54 win over Goffstown, 3-point attempts by Stella Hazelton, found nothing but net, and Salem led 6-0 before the game was a minute old. Christina Aboujaoude followed mo
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division I, girls basketball, Goffstown, NH High School Sports Insider, Salem, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

The start was almost too good for the Salem High School girls basketball team.

The Blue Devils' first two shots of Friday night's 61-54 win over Goffstown, 3-point attempts by Stella Hazelton, found nothing but net, and Salem led 6-0 before the game was a minute old.

Christina Aboujaoude followed moments later with a 3 of her own, and Hazelton hit another a few minutes later to make it 12-5 Salem and force Goffstown to take a timeout. Aboujaoude added one more long ball before the end of the first quarter, as five of the Blue Devils' first six baskets came from behind the 3-point line.

But as the 3-pointers were falling, the Blue Devils started to settle for outside shots and stopped trying to attack the basket in the first quarter, something Salem coach Ricky Oliver made notice of going into the second.

"They were hitting those shots and got complacent," Oliver said. "We played really well to start and then we kind of got off track. We let them do what they like to do, and then we got back to what we needed. We wanted to dictate what we were going to allow them to do, and we got back to that."

As the first half wore on, Goffstown started to do a better job of getting out to contest Salem's outside shooting, and by halftime, the Blue Devils needed to change things up.

"We flipped it to the inside," Oliver said, noting his team put more emphasis on the pick-and-roll in the second half. "We work on it every day in practice and this is probably one of the first games that we actually did it."

While Hazleton had nine points in the first five minutes, Goffstown kept her off the scoresheet the rest of the way, but Aboujaoude (15 points) and Jordan Franzen and Carly Saif (16 points each) picked up the scoring. After making five 3s in the first quarter, Salem (12-3) hit just two after that and scored 18 points in the paint in the second half.

"They were overplaying almost everything, so we just started going to the basket, pick and roll and the rest of that stuff," Oliver said. "We knew that when Stella hit the first two or three (3s), that they were going to pick her up. So we tried to make her a decoy, knowing that she’d still get open shots because they’d be tired of running around, chasing her. And then we went to the inside game. It was a good win for us."

The win helped Salem keep pace among the top teams in the division and kept open the possibility of the Blue Devils climbing into a top four spot. While the Blue Devils lose head-to-head tiebreakers with Pinkerton, Portsmouth and Manchester Memorial, the teams ahead of Salem in the standings finish the year by playing each other.

Salem finishes out the season with games at Manchester Central (9-5) and Merrimack (8-6) before returning home to face Londonderry (6-9).