Newton Citizen

SAVANNAH - The Salem basketball teams split their opening games in the Savannah Holiday Classic on Thursday night at Jenkins High School.

The Salem boys (4-5) ended a three-game losing streak with a 69-59 victory over host Jenkins. However, the Salem girls (5-4) dropped a 57-41 loss to Beach in their game.

In the boys game, the Seminoles outscored the Warriors by 16 points in the final four minutes to claim the victory.

Freshman Tyone Elliott had 18 points to lead Salem, while senior David Raudebaugh and junior Julius Giles each added 10. Jarrett Brown finished with eight points.

"In a lot of the games that we've lost this year, we've gotten leads and then given them back up," Salem boys coach Darren Wilkins said. "We did the same thing tonight, but we went on big run in the last four minutes tonight, and that was the difference."

The Salem boys will play the Calvary-Richmond Hill winner at 7 p.m. today at Jenkins.

In the girls game, after playing a good first half, the Lady Seminoles got off to a slow start in the second half - and that was all the Lady Bulldogs needed to pull away.

"We played a really good first half," Salem girls coach Bill Roberts said. "We were only down four at halftime. At the start of the third quarter, we had some untimely turnovers and they pulled out to a 10- to 12-point lead. They are a very athletic, physical and quick basketball team. You can't turn the ball over against a team like that and stick with them."

Senior center Courtney Hurt scored 16 points to lead the Lady Seminoles. Ariel Wynter had eight points for Salem, while Kentrell White added six.