By Mike London
Salisbury Post
LEXINGTON — The first eight minutes were absolute agony, a hoops version of a root canal, but Salisbury’s boys basketball team was very good for the last 24.
The third-seeded Hornets won 72-57 in their fourth-round matchup at old rival Lexington on Monday and are still alive in the 4A state playoffs.
Second-seeded Lexington (19-7) put together a 14-0 run in the early going, pushing a 5-3 lead to 19-3. The Hornets (22-7) struggled so much that fans didn’t know whether to laugh or cry or ask for their $12 admission charge back.
Blake Smith scored the first three for Salisbury, but that would be his only three on a foul-plagued night.
Braylon Taylor finally made a free throw to get in the scorebook and cut Lexington’s lead to 19-4 after the first quarter.
The Hornets didn’t panic.
“Let’s just say it was rough going for us at the start,” Salisbury head coach Albert Perkins said. “We couldn’t buy a basket and we couldn’t get a rebound, and they were getting to the foul line.”
In the brief interval between the first and second quarters, Perkins reminded his team who they were. He reminded them they had won 21 games for a reason. He reminded them that the Lexington guys were the same high school kids they had beaten in previous seasons, not Justice League of America superheroes wearing capes.
He also informed the Hornets there were no miraculous, 15-point plays. If they were going to come back, it was going to have to be one hoop at a time and one stop at a time.
“Lexington is a very good team, but I honestly didn’t think Lexington was doing anything to make us play so poorly,” Perkins said. “I told our guys to calm down, to just settle down, to move their feet and play basketball. What we really needed most was to see some shots go through the net.”
Royce Perkins, the talented freshman who is the coach’s son, got the initial hoop of the second quarter. When Perkins knocked down a 3-pointer, Lexington’s lead was reduced to 21-9 and the Hornets were showing signs of a pulse. And then streaky shooter Jon Ross made a 3-pointer, and it was 21-12, and there was hope.
A 3-pointer by the unflappable Taylor made it 21-17, and the Hornets, who were getting stop after stop, were right back in it.
Lexington charged ahead briefly by 29-22, but then the Hornets scored the last eight points of the second quarter. Catawba recruit Taylor’s 3-pointer beat the buzzer and gave the Hornets their first lead of the night. They had gone from 19-3 down to a 30-29 lead thanks to six 3-balls in the second quarter, with five different players connecting.
But the foul situation was dire. Perilous, really. Smith had three personals. Ross had three. Tony Pagan, the burly football lineman who can bang and give Smith a break, also had three.
“We made the decision to start Smith and Ross in the second half and hope they could play for a a lot of minutes with three fouls,” Coach Perkins said.
Smith, Salisbury’s leading rebounder, lost the battle with the whistles all night. He got his fourth foul pretty quick. Pagan’s fourth wasn’t far away, either.
“We had to small-ball it for quite a few minutes, and they’ve got a big kid (Andre Gyabaah) who goes about 240 and can play some,” Coach Perkins said.
Lexington held a 44-38 lead deep into the third quarter, but then the Hornets launched a furious and decisive run, a 15-2 spurt to close the quarter.
Now the Hornets led 53-46.
“Some nice steals that led to transition points,” Coach Perkins said. “We work on that a lot, reading the play properly, so we can get out quick.”
Taylor’s three-point play on a drive made it 59-48 with 6:47 left, and the Hornets owned their first double-digit lead.
The Hornets played some keep-away, used some clock. Shortening the game a bit made a lot of sense given the precarious foul situation.
“We just wanted to make sure we didn’t hunt for bad shots,” Coach Perkins said. “We still were looking for the good ones.”
And making them. Ross converted a three-point play for a 69-53 lead with 1:50 left — and it was all over.
The Hornets led by 19 before the Yellow Jackets got the last two buckets.
Taylor made two 3s and scored 19. Perkins scored 17. Ross had 13. Darius Greene made two 3s and scored 10. Jayden Jones hit a 3-pointer during the second-quarter rally and contributed eight. Pagan didn’t score, but he made his presence felt.
Salisbury has won 11 straight games against Lexington. The Yellow Jackets’ most recent victory over the Hornets was in 2020.
Salisbury’s next game will be played at neutral Lenoir-Rhyne University against Central Davidson (20-6) at 8 p.m. on Thursday.
Fourth-seeded Central Davidson had a strong win at Lincoln Charter on Monday.
Salisbury beat Central Davidson 62-48 in a semifinal game in the Dale’s Sporting Goods Sam Moir Christmas Classic at Catawba.
Salisbury 4 26 23 19 — 72
Lexington 19 10 17 11 — 57
SALISBURY — Taylor 19, Perkins 17, Ross 13, Greene 10, Jones 8, Smith 3, Johnson 2.
LEXINGTON — TBA
