GRANITE QUARRY —  Salisbury’s boys are 8-2 after beating East Rowan 54-50 on Friday, and the Hornets could be undefeated.

“If we make the late free throws at West Stokes (an overtime loss) and at Carson (a one-point  loss), then we’re 10-0,” Salisbury coach Jason Causby said. “But that was the great thing about this game. Tonight we made our free throws at the end. Finding out we could make those pressure free throws did us a lot more good than if we’d won big.”

East Rowan got a timeout with 37 seconds left, trailing 50-48, and shooters Logan Shuping and Ian Bradshaw both got good looks at the basket. Both missed. M.J. Rayner got a tough rebound in the lane for the Hornets, then walked to the other end of the floor and nailed two clutch free throws for a 52-48  lead.

“I took a deep breath and knocked them down,” Rayner said. “We needed them. East Rowan is a very good team, and we were just glad to get the win.”

Austin Love made a quick  jumper for the Mustangs immediately after Rayner’s free throws to cut Salisbury’s  lead back to two, but then Deshawn Troutman made two free throws — he got the roll on the first one — with 4.4 seconds left to clinch the Hornets’ fourth straight victory.

“I wanted to be the one with the ball and wanted them to have to foul me,” Troutman said. “There was pressure, but this time we came through.”

While Salisbury drilled the Mustangs 77-50 recently in the SHS gym, Causby knew it would be  a different story playing in Granite Quarry, even with the Mustangs short-handed. East Rowan was missing the Wyrick twins as well as point guard Bravon Goodlett.

“It’s not like we were going to come in here and blow them out,” said Causby, who logged his 150th head-coaching victory at Salisbury. “East Rowan still had plenty of  talented guys who can play and I believe they’re one of the top two or three teams in our county.”

The first six minutes were a nightmare for the Mustangs. They didn’t score in that span and fell behind 10-0. Bradshaw finally hit a 3-pointer from the left corner to put the Mustangs on the board. They trailed 12-3 after a quarter.

“We couldn’t play much better defensively,” Causby said. “But we weren’t putting the ball in the hole.”

Nine second-quarter free throws by Isaac Baker and Shuping kept the Mustangs in the game.  East Rowan managed just three first-half field goals — all by Bradshaw — but the Hornets missed a series of pointblank opportunities and settled for a 23-17 halftime lead.

“We just didn’t hit any shots in the first half,” Bradshaw said. “If we’d made a few, we would’ve won the game.”

The Mustangs finally grabbed  home-floor momentum when Shuping swished a spinning, fading 3-pointer from deep in the right corner as the third quarter ended.

After back-to-back 3-pointers by Shuping and Bradshaw it was 40-all, and the teams scrapped fiercely the last five minutes. Veterans Troutman and D.J. Alexander were the guys who kept producing buckets for the Hornets.

“We had to give it all we had,” Troutman said. “That’s a good team we were playing, and they played us tough on their home floor.”

Troutman scored 20 for the Hornets. Alexander had 11.  Tre Oats, who did some damage early inside, had nine.

Bradshaw scored 15 for the Mustangs (3-6). Shuping, who hit six 3-pointers at West Rowan Tuesday,  had 11.

“Bradshaw had a pretty terrific game, and he’s a huge key for us,” East Rowan coach Trey Ledbetter said. “I thought we really battled tonight. We grew up a lot.”

SALISBURY (54)

Troutman 20, Alexander 11, Oats 9, Fazia 4, Rayner 4, Williams 3, A. Yang 2, Strickland 1, Leckonby .

EAST ROWAN (50)

Bradshaw 15, Shuping 11, Love 7, Baker 6, Davis 5, Caldwell 4, Elliott 2, Wyse.

Salisbury                             12   11      12    19    — 54         

East Rowan                      3     14      13    20   — 50