Campbell’s assessment was right on target — just like a couple of his sweet first-half jump shots.

There was no question that Salisbury’s boys beat Ledford 53-50 in overtime on Friday night in spite of themselves. Salisbury misfired on a chance to win in regulation, then managed just one point in its first seven OT possessions. Somehow, some way, it survived.

“That whole game was a blur,” laughed Hornet defensive standout Bryan Roten. “Honestly, I don’t remember a thing about it. All I can tell you is that we won.”

“We were lucky, real, real lucky,” agreed Salisbury coach Drew Mathews. “But, oh yes, we’ll definitely take it.”

The Hornets (9-14, 7-7 2A Central Carolina Conference) will take it and run. Last night’s thriller gives Salisbury, which started this season 1-7, a 99 percent chance of being part of the state playoff field.

Finishing fourth, the Hornets will make a playoff appearance unless one of the conference’s bottom half — Central Davidson, Ledford, East Davidson or West Iredell — wins next week’s conference tournament.

The Hornets will host Central in a first-round tourney game at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

The teams battled on even terms in the first half, with Salisbury using its inside power (Sharmari Spears and Matt Butler) and Ledford countering with jumpers by Brent Tally and Ty Johnson.

Ledford appeared to seize the momentum when Tally grabbed a board with three seconds left in the half, dribbled to halfcourt and fired up a shot that touched nothing but net to stun the Hornets and hand the Panthers (6-16, 4-10) a 27-23 lead.

“I told the guys at halftime that Ledford had just taken the momentum and we had to something about it,” said Mathews.

The Hornets did. They opened the second half by tossing the ball inside to Spears (19 points) for a three-point play. Then a Spears block led to a Roten transition layup and Salisbury was up 28-27.

The teams swapped the lead back and forth the rest of regulation. The Hornets’ defense —keyed by blocks by Greg Edward and steals by Chris Geter — kept them right there, but Salisbury just wasn’t executing on offense.

Spears, in particular, was getting frustrated. “Sharmari was trying to post up against a zone defense,” said Mathews. “You can’t do that. You’ve got to make adjustments. You have to cut and move and the ball will come.”

Perhaps the most amazing stat of the game was that Ledford committed only one foul in the first 14 minutes of the second half. Maybe that’s why it was tough for anyone to cut and move. It appeared that Spears was getting knocked around, but whistles were sparser than Dick Vitale’s hair.

“We know we’re not gonna get a call. It doesn’t matter where we play at, we’re always Salisbury,” said Roten. “But we didn’t get frustrated, we just played.”

“We knew what we had to do and we went out and did it,” added Geter.

Roten forced a turnover with 31 seconds left to give the Hornets the last possession of regulation, but Spears and Butler missed inside.

Undaunted, the Hornets prevailed in OT, scoring the only bucket of the extra period when Roten threw a beautiful bounce pass to a cutting Spears with 30 seconds left. Spears finished to give the Hornets a 51-50 lead.

Up 53-50, Geter’s eighth steal stopped Ledford’s bid to tie.

LEDFORD (50) — Johnson 17, Tally 14, Myers 6, Reeves 5, Stephens 4, Disher 2, Motsinger 2.

SALISBURY (53) — Spears 19, Butler 10, Greene 6, Geter 5, Campbell 5, Edward 4, Roten 2, Cuthbertson 2, Doleman.

Ledford 14 13 12 9 2 — 50

Salisbury 10 13 17 8 5 — 53