BY SAPNA PATHAK
With 29.5 seconds left in this year’s Class L boys basketball title game, E.J. Perry huddled his players around him to detail what would be the final play of Salem High’s season.
And the play was exactly what Stephen Savage dreamed it would be.
The Blue Devils senior got the ball with 11 seconds left, held it under one arm, wiped his brow and took a peek at the scoreboard: 51-51. With five seconds left, Savage dribbled around the right wing, taking on Trinity’s Steve Rice one-on-one, and sank an arching, fadeaway three-pointer to clinch the championship at the buzzer.
“This is unbelievable, you can’t even imagine it happening a better way,” said Savage, this year’s Class L Player of the Year. “The play was to get me the ball, and I was to dribble down for a layup, but then I heard the coaches on the sidelines yelling to hold the ball instead. I knew right when the ball left my hands it was in.”
So sure was Savage that, the moment the ball was released, he began drifting back toward his team to celebrate.
Standing with arms interlocked, Salem’s bench players – and hundreds of fans – swarmed Savage after a 54-51 win over Trinity at the University of New Hampshire’s Lundholm Gym on Saturday, March 17.
It was the second time the Blue Devils played for the title in Savage’s four-year career and the team’s first championship since 1995.
The Pioneers earned a berth in the finals after a comeback win over 2006 champion Central.
Salem, though, stayed true to its nickname, the Cardiac Kids, coming from behind to win 10 regular-season games. Trailing Trinity at halftime, 30-19, the Blue Devils, behind Kevin Sledge and Brian White, powered to a 43-42 advantage after three quarters.
“(My teammates) played some great defense,” said Sledge, a running back for the Blue Devils football team.
“They got me some good looks, and I got into a groove, I guess. I knew we had to stay in it because we’ve been behind many times and come back.”
Sledge and White combined for 12 of Salem’s 24 third-quarter points. The final frame found the squads in a back-and-forth battle; neither led by more than three points. White, the Blue Devils’ 6-foot-4 center, sank two pressure-packed free throws to knot the score, 51-51 with 1:27 left.
“I told my seniors to suck it up and play the way they’ve been playing all year,” said Perry of his halftime pep talk. “I asked them how they wanted to leave and reminded them they’d been down this road before.”
On the possession following White’s free throws, Trinity’s Dan Hartford missed his two fouls shots to give Salem the ball and set up Savage’s memorable play.
Savage finished the game with 14 points, six rebounds and two assists, while Sledge added 10 points and three steals. White scored 14 points and grabbed six rebounds in his final game as a Blue Devil. Also graduating this year are point guard Chris Voukides, Nick Loomis and Tajh Stokes.
“We were surprised they didn’t come out on Steve and play defense like they had the whole game,” said Perry of the final play. “All of a sudden they were gonna let us go for the last shot, so we were going to take it. I’ll put Steve Savage on the last shot every time.”