Vikings Fall on Road

BOSTON, Mass. – Salem State men's basketball found themselves back on the road this afternoon as they traveled to the heart of Boston, Massachusetts to take on the Lions of Emerson College. The Vikings dropped to 2-2 on the young season after falling to the Lions by a tally of 75-69.

Salem was paced by Jaden Castillo (Lawrence, Mass.) who had 22 points while Michael Makiej (Andover, Mass.) tacked on 12 points and seven rebounds. LJ Hicks (Gardner, Mass.) and Nicholas Martinez (Revere, Mass.) added 11 and 10 points, respectively, in the loss.

Trevor Arico (Ann Arbor, Mich.) led the way for the Lions with 26 points, while Asher Gardiner (Christchurch, New Zealand) notched a double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds on the afternoon.

 Makiej picked up where he left off Thursday night, notching back-to-back three pointers in the opening two minutes to give the Vikings the 7-2 edge. The Vikings would hold a slight lead over the next seven minutes before the Lions were able to grab control of the game at the eleven-minute mark when they went on a 9-0 run to take their first lead of the game (23-16). N. Martinez would stop the bleeding with a jump-shot coming out of a Viking timeout, but three minutes later Arico connected on a three to give his team a double-digit advantage (31-21). With just over three minutes to play in the half the Lions would find themselves ahead by a tally of 20 before a Castillo three-pointer ignited an 8-2 Viking run, making it a 14-point game (43-29) entering halftime.

The Vikings kept the Lions in striking distance in the opening eight minutes of the second, before a perfect trip at the charity stripe for Castillo brought it back to a single-digit game (53-44) and forced the Lions' hand at a timeout. The Lions held onto their slight lead until there was under five minutes to play and the Vikings went on a 7-0 run to make the score 63-58 in favor of the home team with 2:37 to play in the game. After a 2-2 trip at the line put the Lions ahead seven, Hicks went on a run of his own, scoring four unanswered points to bring the Vikings within three with 1:32 on the clock. Unfortunately, three would be as close as the Vikings would get as Emerson went 10-12 from the free line to solidify the 75-69 victory.  

The Vikings are back on the road Tuesday night as they travel to Wenham, Massachusetts to take on cross-town rival Gordon College for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.