Staff report

JAMESTOWN — Salisbury’s boys basketball team got one of its best wins of the season on Saturday.

Less than 24 hours after winning a challenging game at North Rowan, the Hornets took on Dudley, a Greensboro athletic power.

Salisbury’s 68-66 victory against the Panthers was part of the Black Heritage Classic hosted by the College Prep Leadership Academy, also known as The Point.

“We were down 22-21 after the first quarter, but we held the court after that,” Salisbury head coach Albert Perkins said. “We gave them some life in the fourth quarter by fouling too much and taking some quick shots, but we were able to hold on.”

Myles Smith scored 29 for the Hornets, while Braylon Taylor had 22.

Only five Hornets scored. Hank Webb was not able to play, as he had a college visit scheduled on Saturday. He’s being recruited by a number of schools as a football kicker/punter.

It was a significant victory for Salisbury (13-3), which has won 12 straight games.

The Hornets are only 11th in the 2A West RPI rankings, despite their won/lost record, because the winning percentage of Salisbury’s opponents is unusually low (43.6 percent). Salisbury has played East Rowan twice in addition to Central Carolina Conference games against East Davidson, West Davidson and South Davidson, teams that have weak won/lost records.

Dudley (7-6) has posted a winning record while playing one of the strongest schedules of any 3A team. Dudley is 12th in the 3a West RPI rankings largely because Dudley’s opponents have won almost 69 percent of their games.

The winning percentage of your opponents’ opponents is one of the components of RPI, so the Hornets benefited from Dudley’s difficult schedule.

SALISBURY scoring — M. Smith 29, Taylor 22, B. Smith 6, House 6, Davis 5.