• Salem High School
• West Washington High School
• Basketball

By Josh Lewis, Writer

For the third year in a row, West Washington opened up their season with a win over the Lions. Salem struggled to get shots against the West Washington zone defense, while the Senators were able to keep Salem at arms reach late from the free throw line, shooting 24 to the Lions 2 to win 64-58.

Salem started off hot from the three point line to open the game. Kaiden Romero-Hembree and Adam Mull hit back to back threes to give the Lions the early 6-1 edge. Holden Russell hit a bucket to cut the lead down but Romero-Hembree hit another triple to keep the Lions rolling early. A layup from Mull and a jumper from Braxton Dean gave the Lions a 15-9 lead before Russell hit a three to cut it 15-12 with 13 seconds left in the opening quarter.

Back to back triples from Romero-Hembree had Salem pulling away to start the second quarter. Jackson Brough hit a jumper to give Salem their largest lead 23-14. But fouls and turnovers started to mount for the Lions and West Washington started to live at the charity stripe, a trend for the rest of the game.

Russell hit two free throws to cut the Lions lead down 27-22. Carson Albertson hit a three off the bench for Salem to push the lead back out 30-25. Mull scored with about 40 seconds left to give the Lions a 32-27 advantage going into the locker room.

To open the second half Russell hit two more from the stripe and Hayden Morrow hit a three to tie the game up at 32. A three from Colton Brown gave West Washington their first lead thanks to a couple of early Salem turnovers. Romero-Hembree stopped the run with a triple of his own and another bucket in the post. Russell tied the game back up with a three and an old fashioned three point play. Free throws from Morrow gave the Senators the lead back and another old-fashioned three point play from Russell with 1.7 left in the quarter gave West Washington a 49-41 lead going into the final stanza.

Salem tried to hang around early in the fourth. Mull scored off a steal and Evan Lloyd got a three to fall to make it 51-48, but Brown answered with a three on the other end. Russell converted another three point play to push the lead out 61-52 and put the finishing touches on the win.

WW scoring: Morrow 11, Russell 32, Ables 2, Marrs 2, C. Brown 13, T. Brown 2, Batt 2

SHS scoring: Mull 15, Schocke 2, Lloyd 3, Dean 11, Brough 4, Albertson 3, Romero-Hembree 17

Threes: Morrow, Russell 2, C. Brown 2, Mull, Lloyd, Dean, Romero-Hembree 5, Albertson

Photos by Josh Lewis.

• Salem High School
• Pekin Eastern High School
• Basketball

By Josh Lewis, Writer

For the first time since the 2016-17 season, the Eastern Lady Musketeers topped the Lady Lions of Salem. Eastern’s defense forced turnovers in waves to keep Salem from gaining any kind of momentum on offense. Eastern forced 35 turnovers to help them put Salem away 69-20.

Eastern Head Coach Taylor Drury said she thought her team played a complete game against Salem. “This week was all about us. We hadn’t played our version of basketball like I wanted us to all year. I thought we came out and tried to do that. We played as a unit offensively and defensively. I was very pleased with that as far as everything goes.”

Eastern took an early lead thanks to the sharp shooting thanks to a couple of threes from Bailey Trainor to put the Musketeers ahead 11-2. Turnovers for the Lions as Addison Smith hit a three to push the lead 16-3. Alexis Maudlin got a floater to fall to make it a 18-5 game late in the first.

Trainor drained another three for Eastern to open the second quarter and the lead ballooned to 25-5. Rachel Little came off the bench for Salem and scored two straight baskets to cut the lead 30-10. Abby Hardy hit two free throws, but Eastern just kept plugging away and built up a 37-13 lead heading into the break.

“I felt like we might have potential to do that going through the season. I would like to capitalize on that more often,” said Drury. “Tonight we got the chance to debut it and see how it looked and see what we need to work on. It looked pretty good. There are some things we have to tweak but overall I was pretty happy with it.”

The Smith sisters continued their barrage for Eastern in the second quarter. Addison found Avery for a layup and then Addison got a bucket of her own to push the lead to 53-18 and Eastern cruised to their win from there.

Eastern will host Henryville on Wednesday while Salem will host West Washington on Tuesday.

SHS scoring: A. Hardy 2, Little 4, Maudlin 3, K. Hardy 5, Maynard 2, Walters 1, Wilson 3

EHS scoring: Trainor 11, Burton 8, Ad. Smith 18, Hauner 5, Av. Smith 7, Robbins 13, Brawner 5, Jackson 2

Threes: K. Hardy, Trainor 3, Ad. Smith, Hauner, Robbins

• Basketball
• Salem Middle School

Congratulations to the Salem Lions 8th grade girls basketball team as they went 3-0 this Saturday to win the Randy Johnson Tip-Off Tournament!

Hanover College freshman Lanie Roberts finished in sixth place in women’s cross country during a recent Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) meet. Hanover won the conference.

The HCAC includes institutions from Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio and is affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) Division III.

Roberts graduated from Salem High School in 2024. She is the daughter of Jared and Cindy Roberts of Salem.

Brady Wells, coach for Hanover’s women’s cross country, was recognized as Coach of the Year. He formerly served as a teacher and coach at Salem High School.