The Dexter basketball team held off a late fourth quarter rally to take down Saline 44-37 in a SEC Red battle Friday night.

The Dreadnaughts held a 15-point lead after three 33-18, but the Hornets began to chip away at the lead and got within six 35-29 with three minutes left.

Noah Kronberg hit a triple with 24 seconds left to cut the lead to five 42-37, but Scott Smith sank a pair of free throws to seal the win for the Dreadnaughts.

Dexter jumped out to an 11-5 lead after one quarter behind triples by Haden Harm and Andrew Boydston.

Saline got back into with to start the second with back-to-back triples by Kronberg to cut the lead to 13-12, but Dexter closed out the half with an 8-0 run for a 21-12 halftime lead.

Jack DeMerell came to life and scored nine second half points for Dexter as their lead grew to double digits in the third.

DeMerell finished with a team-high 12 points for the Dreads.

Smith finished with 11 points and Boydston nine for Dexter. Harm added five points, Ben Murphy and Will Simpson three each, while Marcus Keeler and Sam Cormier had one each.

Kronberg led Saline with 16 points.

Chris Cotuna added 11 points, Brady Costigan four, Leo Sotiropoulos, Gabe Iadipaolo and Broderick Calder scored two each.

Dexter improved to 3-1 in the SEC Red and 4-3 overall, while Saline fell to 4-7 overall and 1-3 in the Red.