His Salisbury boys basketball team and host Lexington were locked in a fairly vicious slugout with less than a minute remaining Friday night.

“Tie game, under a minute left,” the second-year boss explained. “That’s my kind of game. In situations like that, we are tough. That’s when we make it happen.”

Only thing is, they didn’t. The Hornets were outscored 6-0 in the last 42 seconds and dropped a 63-57 Central Carolina Conference decision.

“We had the game won,” senior Terry Johnson said after Salisbury (5-9 overall) fell to 1-1 in the league. “We just didn’t execute like we’re supposed to.”

Salisbury, which opened the fourth quarter eight points behind the Jackets (7-5, 2-0 CCC), rallied to take a 55-54 lead when Ken Drye swiped the ball from a defender, turned and hit a short hook shot from inside the lane with 2:21 to go.

“That’s when we should have put them away,” Thad Pryor said after netting a game-high 25 points. “We should have kept them down when we had them down.”

Instead, Lexington slipped from the Hornets’ grasp and regained the lead when Marquis Carroll nailed a three-pointer from the left side with a minute-and-a-half remaining. Salisbury tied the score 57-57 seconds later on Johnson’s 10-foot jumper.

“At that point the game could have gone either way,” said Mathews, ever the optimist. “What my guys gotta realize is that they’ve gotta go all the way. We can play with anybody, any type of game. We’ve just gotta finish at the end.”

That’s precisely what Lexington did. Terrence Partee and Carroll each converted a pair of last-minute free throws for the Jackets. Then Partee brought the house down when he stole the ball in Salisbury’s end, dribbled the length of the court and made a major-league slam to seal it.

“It was a pretty physical game,” said Johnson, who contributed 10 points — all in the second half. “But that’s how we like it.”

“It’s a tough feeling to lose this way,” added Pryor. “Still, we can’t dwell on the past. We’ve got to look at what’s coming next.”

Mathews also wants to keep his eyes focused on the road ahead rather than in the rearview.

“It’s only the second week in January. We’ve still got another month to go,” he said. “By mid-January I want us to be playing our best basketball. And hopefully, we will be.”

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NOTES: Carroll paced Lexington with 20 points. He converted four baskets from three-point range...The Hornets shot 41 percent (26-for-64) from the field...Randall Jones’ 12 points gave Salisbury three scorers in double figures...SHS returns to action Tuesday at East Davidson.

SALISBURY (57) — Pryor 25, Jones 12, T.Johnson 10, Drye 6, Blanton 2, B.Blount 2, J.Johnson, M.Blount, Speigner.

LEXINGTON (63) — Carroll 20, Partee 12, McNeair 9, Holshouser 8, Barnes 7, Hairston 4, Dawkins 3.

Salisbury 12 11 15 19 — 57