Saline Goes to Overtime to Move to 3-0

The young Saline boys’ basketball team made it three straight wins to start the season after rallying past Canton 74-72 in overtime Tuesday night.

Sophomore phenom Jonathan Sanderson had another monster night with 51 points and seven rebounds. He is averaging 40.6 points a game in the Hornets first three contests this season.

Saline took a 17-10 lead after one quarter and pushed its lead to 24-12 with six minutes left in the second, but the Hornets would go cold, and Canton went on an 18-2 run the rest of the second to take a 30-26 lead at halftime.

Canton would continue to hold the lad throughout the third and outscored Saline 14-10 to take a 44-36 lead into the fourth.

That is when Sanderson took the game over.

Canton’s lead would grow to thirteen 49-36 with 6:45 left when the Hornets went on a 14-0 run over the next three minutes with all 14 points coming from Sanderson to give Saline a 50-49 lead with 3:38 left.

While Sanderson went off in the fourth it was the Hornets LaDanian Woods who came up with the shot of the night.

Canton clung to a 58-55 lead with under 10 seconds left when Wood took a pass in front of the Hornets bench and eluded a defender and launched a triple that banked in off the glass to tie the game at 58 with under five seconds left to send the game to overtime tied at 58.

Sanderson scored a quick five points with a pair of free throws and a triple to give Saline a 63-58 lead.

The Hornets led by three when Lincoln Keyes hit a lay-in for a 68-63 lead and Peyton Widen split a pair of free throws to make it 69-63 with a minute remaining.

Canton cut the lead to three, but another Sanderson basket pushed the lead to 71-66 with 30 seconds left.

An and-one for Canton made it 71-69 when Woods split a pair of free throws to push the lead back to three 72-69.

Canton had a chance to tie, but the shot was off the mark and Brad Leventhal calmly sank a pair of free throws with six seconds left to seal the win for the Hornets.

Sanderson scored 29 of the Hornets 38 points in the fourth quarter and overtime period for the Hornets, but his teammates came through in the clutch for Saline as well.

Keyes finished with 12 points and eight rebounds, while Leventhal added five points. Woods scored four including the game tying triple at the end of the fourth, while Tommy Carr and Widen scored one each.