Gem City Sports Network

Marauders beat Salem in overtime for seventh straight victory

SALEM, West Virginia – The Central State Marauders won their seventh straight game with a 101-99 overtime victory over Salem University on Wednesday night.

With the win, CSU finished the regular season with a 14-14 overall record. Salem drops to 6-19 on the year.

CSU built a 10-point lead with 4:57 left in the first half. Salem managed to cut the deficit down to four, 52-48, by halftime.

Led by the scoring of Reggie Oliver and Darren Montgomery, Salem surged ahead to take a 72-65 lead by the 10:54 mark of the second half. CSU responded with a 10-0 run sparked by baskets from senior Jeremy Brown to go up, 75-73, at the 8:14 mark. The teams traded baskets down the stretch.

Salem took a 87-86 lead at the 1:18 mark after free throws from Montgomery. Davone Daniels answered on the other end with a three ball to give CSU a 89-87 lead with 56 seconds left in regulations. Montgomery converted inside to even the score on SU’s next trip down the floor. Charles Ruise put CSU back up by two, 91-89, with 7 seconds left. Oliver drew a foul and calmly knocked down two free throws to knot the score back up and force overtime.

Late in the overtime period, Brown put CSU up 97-96 at the 1:13 mark. Montgomery knocked down two free throws with 56 seconds left to give put his team back up by one. After a CSU turnover, Oliver split a pair of free throws to put SU up, 99-97, with 31 seconds to go. CSU tied the game up on the next possession as Daniels found Chris Scott down low for the lay-in with 20 seconds left.

On the ensuing play, Brown stole the ball from Montgomery and was quickly fouled. Brown went 1 of 2 from the line as CSU led 100-99 with 5 seconds left. CSU sealed the game by forcing another Salem turnover on the next possession. Sterling Gilmore added an insurance free throw as CSU climbed back to a .500 overall record.

CSU will travel to Birmingham, Alabama next week for the SIAC Tournament. Tournament seeding and game times will be announced later this week.

Notes
With Monday’s result, CSU records its best regular season record since the 2014-2015 season.

CSU scored a season-high 101 points on Wednesday.

With his performance on Wednesday, senior Jeremy Brown eclipsed 800 career points and 700 rebounds.

Since joining the team in late January, junior guard Charles Ruise is averaging 14.4 ppg. Wednesday was Ruise’s second 20+ scoring performance.

Tom Johnson‘s 7 steals on Wednesday is the most by any CSU player this season.

CSU has not lost in the month of February (7-0).

CSU is currently on its longest winning streak since the 2012-13 season (8 games).