MIAA Tourney: Girls Hoops Draws Rival Danvers

The girls basketball Witches will play one of their closest rivals, Danvers, in the first round of the MIAA Div. 2 North sectional tournament, which begins this week.

The game is scheduled for Wednesday, March 2 at at 7 p.m. on Danvers' court.

Salem is seeded 13th out of 16 teams in the bracket and Danvers, as the fourth seed.

The Witches enter the post-season on a roll. After starting the season 1-6, the team won 11 of the next 15 games to finish the year at 12-10.

"The kids believed in themselves and continued to work hard," Head Coach John Fortunato said. "We finished strong down the stretch."

Salem will look to repeat its upset victory on Jan. 28, when the Witches ran away with a blow-out win over the Falcons, who finished the season 15-5.

"Danvers is a great team, very talented and very well coached," Fortunato said. "We'll have to play our best ball and it takes a great effort to beat them."

Offensively, a lot will depend on the performance of the Witches' two leading scorers, captain Amanda Wilkins and senior center , who were both named to the Northeastern Conference all star team.

On the defensive side, Salem will have to stop Danvers' star, senior captain Kellie Macdonald, who was named MVP in the Northeastern Conference South by the league coaches.

"Certainly the records determine seeding, but now everybody is back to '0' and '0'," Fortunato said.