Howard’s Fahmee Lewis (top) defends as Salesianum’s Mike Kempski works on the perimeter in the first half of Salesianum’s 59-52 opener win at home Friday.
WILMINGTON – When Howard suddenly turned a 15-point deficit into a tie game over a five-minute stretch in the second half, Salesianum basketball coach Brendan Haley wasn’t surprised.
With a young team including four freshman and a prominent sophomore, Haley expects some bumps in the road this season. But the Sals also have the size and talent to navigate most roadblocks, and they settled down and drove away to a 59-52 victory in their season opener Friday night at Birkenheuer Memorial Gymnasium.
“We’ve got a lot of young talent, for sure,” Haley said. “There were signs, obviously, of a bright future. There were also signs of youth tonight. We did a lot of things that we know will get better, and it was not unexpected.”
Salesianum (1-0), the two-time defending DIAA champion, got its first glimpse of 6-foot-8 freshman center Tariq Ingraham, who pumped in 21 points and pulled down 17 rebounds in his high school debut.
“It was pretty fun, playing with new guys,” Ingraham said. “I made a couple of rookie mistakes that I shouldn’t have made, but other than that I think it was a good game.”
Ingraham danced across the lane and turned a pass from fellow freshman Trevor Alderman into a layup to give Sallies a 38-23 lead with 3:02 left in the third quarter. But the Wildcats (0-1) ratcheted up the defensive pressure and turned steals into transition points, tying it at 45 on two free throws by Kineph Turner with 5:46 to play.
Haley called a couple of timeouts to settle his team, and they regained control.
“We just talked about trying to slow down, and deal with what was right in front of them,” the Sals’ coach said.
Juwell Campbell put back an offensive rebound and scored a layup off of Alderman’s fast-break pass to put Sallies up 49-45. After two more free throws by Turner, Campbell made two more layups off of assists by Alderman and freshman Fahmir Ali for a 53-47 lead with 3:19 to play.
Then Ingraham took over, dunking off an assist from Campbell and scoring on his third straight offensive rebound to make it 57-47 with 1:59 remaining.
“He’s pretty special at this age already,” Haley said of Ingraham. “Obviously, there is what could happen. There is a lot of potential there for him going forward.
“He was drifting away from the rim more than I would have liked at times. I was trying to encourage him to get in there with some offensive rebounding. But when it was late, I was excited to see him stick his nose in there.”
The Sals also got 14 points and seven rebounds from 6-6 sophomore Paul Brown, who returns after earning extensive playing time as a freshman last season.
“We have a lot different team,” Brown said. “We’re a lot younger and inexperienced, but I think we’ll go a long way with the talent.”
Howard got 17 points from Kineph Turner, 15 from freshman Kwa-Jree Turner and 11 from sophomore LaMar Woody.
Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ
Salesianum Tariq Ingraham stymies a late drive by Howard’s Kineph Turner in the fourth quarter of Salesianum’s 59-52 opener win at home Friday.