Ayham Salah, Oak Lawn defeat Mount Camel

Oak Garden senior Ayham Salah wasn’t feeling very nicely on Friday.

Might need had one thing to do with an excessive amount of turkey on Thursday.

“Possibly Thanksgiving dinner, I don’t know,” Salah mentioned. “Once I awakened my abdomen was fairly upset.

“Proper earlier than we began warming up for the sport, I acquired some meals in my system. I wasn’t 100%, however we’ve performed an excessive amount of within the offseason simply to surrender and let down.”

Salah had an unimaginable ending kick for Oak Garden in a 76-68 come-from-behind victory over Mount Carmel within the championship recreation of the Spartan-Ram Traditional.

Event MVP Xavier Sulaiman scored 33 factors for Oak Garden (4-0). Salah added 16 factors and Corey Lee had 14. Henry Martinez contributed eight factors and 4 rebounds.

Anthony Ciaravino led Mount Carmel (3-1) with 17 factors. DeAndre Craig added 14. Lee Marks had 13 factors and 7 rebounds, with Angelo Ciaravino chipping in with 12 factors and eight rebounds.

Oak Garden fell behind early as Salah spent a lot of the primary half on the bench, scoreless with two fouls. He lastly hit his stride within the third quarter, scoring seven factors to assist draw the Spartans inside 55-48.

Salah opened the fourth with a driving layup. He then sprinted to midcourt to deflect a cross by the Caravan, chase the ball down and dash in for an additional layup.

The electrical energy was flowing.

“That’s an actual momentum shift,” Sulaiman mentioned. “Clearly, popping out within the fourth quarter, we wanted some juice. And that acquired our juices going.

“Ayham is among the leaders on the crew. He’s one of many captains. That’s what I say to him on a regular basis.”

Reduce to the end line.

Oak Garden was clinging to a three-point lead with 13.4 seconds left when Salah hit the entrance finish of a one-and-one. He missed the second shot, however hustled in for his personal rebound and was fouled once more. He hit each.

“I used to be simply prepared,” Salah mentioned. “On that one free throw, I felt the ball come off my finger just a little bizarre. I knew the place it was going to go and acquired to the spot.”

For his remaining act, Salah made a court-length cross that Sulaiman slammed residence on the buzzer.

“Oh yeah, that was icing on the cake,” Salah mentioned. “We work on that.”

And never simply throughout basketball season.

“In soccer, he’s the quarterback and I’m his huge receiver,” Sulaiman mentioned, laughing. “I’m his huge receiver on a regular basis.”

Salah was an occasional starter as a junior for Oak Lawn coach Jason Rhodes. He averaged 9.5 factors and earned all-conference honors.

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“We had a fantastic group of seniors final season,” Rhodes mentioned. “He needed to form of wait his flip. A number of the time he was a starter as a result of youngsters have been out with COVID. He earned the spot as a result of he may shoot the ball, he performs with nice power and he’s a crew chief for us.

“He’s form of our spark. We feed off him, actually. Our complete crew does. We feed off him and Corey Lee.”

Ready as a junior? No downside.

“I knew once I got here off the bench I used to be going to do what I needed to do to get the job performed,” Salah mentioned. “I believed in my guys final season. They actually helped me discover ways to get via the Oak Garden basketball system.

“And it was actually good to study, simply watching.”

Now, Salah is the chief, one which proved invaluable to Sulaiman after he transferred from Marist.

“He’s one of many individuals I’m going to for assist at observe and even through the video games,” Sulaiman mentioned. “He’s helped me break into turning into an Oak Garden Spartan. He’s helped me take these strides, and I give him lots of props for it.”