Salzer Leads Decisive First Half Surge for Falcons
MONROE, NJ–In a rare Thursday night game this fall at the 2014 Monroe Sports Center Fall League, the undefeated Monroe Falcons took on the winless Steinert Spartans in one of the two 9:00 PM hour games. Early on, the Spartans went right at Monroe as they scored the first four points, and connected on two threes en route to a 12-8 lead with just about 15 minutes left in the first half. However, the Falcons withstood Steinert’s best shot, and delivered a knockout with two punches: Pressure defense, and plenty of scoring from senior Tyler Salzer on offense. The result was a 29-8 surge the rest of the half for a 37-20 lead en route to a 57-42 victory.
Salzer, who ended up with 24 points, scored 15 of those points within the first 10:40 of the contest. As a matter of fact, he accounted for 15 of Monroe’s first 21 points with fellow senior Matt Cocorikis (10 points for the game) adding 4 points and junior Eddie Pinto (11 points for the game) chipping in with two during the early stretch. Salzer ended up scoring 20 points in the first half alone as he scored on jumpers, drives to the hoop, and baskets in the paint while being fouled. For the game, Salzer made 8 field goals, a three pointer, and 5 of 7 from the foul line for his 24 points. The trio of Salzer, Cocorikis, and Pinto accounted for 79 percent of Monroe’s scoring in the contest.
Things didn’t start out smoothly for the Falcons at first. Steinert scored off the opening tip with a layup at the 19:55 mark for a 2-0 lead. After stopping Monroe at the other end, the Spartans drilled a three pointer from the right side with 19:26 left in the half for a 5-0 edge. Cocorikis put MTHS on the scoreboard with a reverse layup at the 19:12 mark followed by a foul line jumper from Salzer with 18:05 to go in the half for a 5-4 Steinert lead. The Spartans responded again with a three from the left wing at the 17:54 mark for an 8-4 lead before Salzer got himself to the line, and made a pair of free throws to close the gap to 8-6 with 17:02 to go in the half. Steinert then added a couple more scores for a six point lead with a little under 16 minutes remaining in the half.
Salzer kept Monroe in striking distance while a couple of scores as he was fouled at the 15:16 and 13:42 marks. His only two blemishes on the night were missed bonus free throws to convert both scores into conventional three point plays. Struggling with its man-to-man defense early on, the Falcons utilized a full court press, which got the Spartans out of sync, and produced turnovers. Cocorikis then scored a layup at the 11:24 mark followed by a traditional three point play by Salzer with 11:08 to go in the half for a 16-12 lead. Pinto then got into the act with a transition layup following a steal for an 18-12 advantage nearly midway through the first half. Salzer followed that by converting another three point play at the 9:20 mark for a 21-12 lead. The Falcons didn’t stop there either.
Instead, the Purple Birds continued to put the pedal to the medal, and break the game open. Pinto took advantage of a technical foul call on Steinert by making both free throws at the 7:33 mark for a 23-12 lead. After a near two minute lull in the scoring, Cocorikis scored in the paint from the right side to push the Monroe lead to a baker’s dozen with 5:45 left in the half. Pinto went to the line again after swiping a steal and drawing a foul on a layup attempt that resulted in one of two from the charity stripe and a 26-12 lead at the 5:18 mark. A little over a half minute later, Salzer fired in a three pointer from the left corner for a 29-12 lead, and then Pinto scored again on another transition layup for a 31-14 advantage with a little under four minutes remaining until halftime.
Monroe finished up the first half by splitting the last 12 points with Steinert including two more free throws from Pinto with 8.3 seconds remaining for the 37-20 advantage at the intermission. Steinert then opened the second half like it had began the game with five unanswered points to close within a dozen at 37-25 with just under 17 minutes to play. However, the Spartans were unable to get any closer than that. Instead, Monroe put the game away with an 18-8 tear over a span of 9:39 for a commanding 55-33 lead with just over 7 minutes left. Highlighting the run was a nice give and go between Cocorikis and Salzer at the 13:08 mark for a 42-27 lead, a score inside by Cocorikis at the 9:46 mark for a 48-29 edge, a reverse layup on a follow by Pinto for a 50-31 lead at the 8:31 mark, and then a breakaway layup by Salzer to cap the run for the 22 point lead with 7:19 left.
The Falcons also got some support off the bench with some solid play by one of its talented sophomores. The sophomore reserve fired in a three from the right side of the key at the 15:04 mark (off a pass from Salzer), made two technical free throws at the 12:53 mark, and clicked on a baseline jumper after getting an offensive rebound off a missed three by Salzer at the 11:18 mark. Monroe also got a three from the left corner with 7:44 to play for a 20 point advantage. Steinert finished the game with a 9-2 spurt to make the game more respectable as the Falcons were more concerned with running out the clock than scoring more points. With the 57-42 victory, Monroe improved to 6-0 on the fall while Steinert slipped to 0-5. Monroe will be back in action again on Monday night, October 27th with an 8:05 game against Allentown, which recently was knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten by Howell.