SALEM, West Virginia - After their brief holiday hiatus, Head Coach Vince Thibodeau's men's basketball team played host to NCCAA opponent Clinton College in Salem on Saturday afternoon. While the game was only an exhibition for the Tigers, the competition was tough all afternoon in T. Edward DAvis Gymnasium. Despite trailing at the half, Salem was able to grind out a tough win over Clinton by a score of 70-62.

In the first half, Salem found their offensive attack somewhat slow early on as the Golden Bears jumped out to an early lead. Salem was able to shake off the rust thanks to double digit first half points from Kapone Barley. However, the Golden Bears of Clinton made the Tigers work for every point, and Salem trailed 39-34 at halftime. 

After the break, Salem had to kick things into a new gear if they were going to take control of the contest back from Clinton. It was the Salem bench who found that run as key buckets from Nils Baumeisters and Khemanni Davis gave the Tigers control of the game roughly midway through the 2nd half. Down the stretch, Salem added some distance between themselves and the Golden Bears from solid free throw shooting from Ian Hardy and the aforementioned Barley. With control of the contest, Salem cruised to the well-earned 70-62 exhibition win over Clinton. 

In the scorebook, Salem was led by an impressive 25 points from Kapone Barley. Brandon Francois added 10 points for the Tigers as well. Jack Harrson IV and Khemanni Davis each finished just short of double figures for Salem with 9 points a piece. 

The victory this weekend should give Salem a fresh perspective going forward as they will return to regular season play this week. They are back at home on Wednesday, November 29th at 7:30 PM with the Concord Mountain Lions making the trip up to Salem from Athens for a mid-week evening doubleheader.