Staff report

REIDSVILLE — Salisbury’s boys basketball season ended with a 59-50 loss at Reidsville in a regional semifinal on Tuesday.

Officiating was erratic and visibly flustered the Hornets, who had a 15-game winning streak halted and finished 22-6.

Reidsville won the game with a devastating third quarter in which the second-seeded Rams (25-0) outscored the sixth-seeded Hornets, 22-7.

An overflow crowd watched a disjointed, bumpy game that was taken over by Reidsville’s freshman point guard Dionte Neal, who scored more than 30 himself and set up quite a few more.

Neal is ultra-quick, and the Hornets had no success staying in front of him in the half court or stopping him when he got out in transition. He also made some deep 3-pointers.

Some of Neal’s half-court penetrations led to layups or dunks by 6-foot-8 Kendre Harrison, who also is a freshman and scored in double figures.

With Neal and Harrison, Reidsville will be hard to handle for the next three seasons.

Both teams struggled early. Mike Geter’s six-point first quarter (with one 3) helped off-set nine early points by Neal, and it was 11-all after a quarter.

Reidsville settled for jumpers and experienced a brutal shooting second quarter. A 3-pointer by Jalen Chunn helped Salisbury take a 20-15 halftime lead.

Neal scored 13 in the third quarter to turn things around for his team. Salisbury made only two buckets in that quarter, including a 3-pointer from the left corner by Juke Harris for his only 3 of the night.

The fourth quarter was a maddening parade to the foul line by Reidsville, as the Rams spread the floor and put the ball in Neal’s hands. Reidsville made 16 free throws in the fourth quarter alone.

Harris led the Hornets with 21 points. He got 11 from the foul line, including seven free throws in the fourth quarter when the Hornets were playing catch-up.

Geter scored 10. Dashawn Brown had seven. Hank Webb and Jale

n Chunn made 3-pointers and scored five each. Deuce Walker was in foul trouble and got one bucket on a stick-back in the fourth quarter.

Next for Reidsville in the regional final is eighth-seeded Lincoln Charter, which eliminated No. 1 seed North Surry in the third round and ousted No. 4 seed East Gaston on Tuesday.

Salisbury    11    9     7    23    — 50

Reidsville   11     4   22   22    — 59

Salisbury — Harris 21, Geter 10, Brown 7, Chunn 5, Webb 5, Walker 2.