By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Salisbury boys basketball head coach Albert Perkins had to replace Juke Harris, the leading scorer in Rowan County history, but the drop-off for the Hornets was minimal.

Instead of 27-4, they went 26-4. After struggling in the early games, the Hornets put together a 25-game winning streak once the football players started to blend in and the puzzle pieces started to fit together.

Salisbury lost to Reidsville in the fourth round of the 2A West playoffs, but the Rams have incredible talent and had the advantage of the home floor and crowd. The Hornets may have been the second-best team in 2A.

Perkins, who reached the 100 career wins milestone during the season, is the Post’s Rowan County Coach of the Year for the second time in his two seasons. He was head coach at Christ the King (three seasons) and Woodlawn (two seasons) before coming to Salisbury.

Perkins benefited from the wonderful gift of transfer Myles Smith, who replaced about two-thirds of Harris’ scoring. Braylon Taylor hit the accelerator and provided the rest of the scoring punch that was needed. Beyond those two combining for about 40 points per game, there were a lot of solid team efforts on offense and defense.

“It I had to point to one thing that made us successful it was our defense,” Perkins said. “We defended very well in most of our games. I don’t mind being known as a coach who hangs his hat on defense. Our practices were mostly defensive practices. We talked about defense at every practice. If you play for Salisbury, you’re going to learn to love defense or you’re not going to be playing a lot.”

The plan that Perkins and assistants Dimp Everhart and Greg Tinsley had in place the whole off-season had to be scrapped when Bryce Dalton broke an ankle in the football playoffs. Dalton made it back and played in the last 11 games of the season, but Salisbury had to play 19 games without the quick veteran point guard.

“We knew in the fall we’d have Myles on the wing, Braylon as the shooting guard and Bryce at point guard,” Perkins said. “But then Bryce went down. That did change a lot of things, mainly for Braylon, because now he had to handle the ball a lot more. But Braylon did that for us, and then when Bryce did make it back, people got to see just how strong Braylon’s offensive skill set is. He can do a lot of things.”

Salisbury filled the trophy case. The Hornets beat a very good Carson team in the final to win another Sam Moir Christmas Classic. The Hornets went 12-0 in the Central Carolina Conference, extending their conference winning streak to 35 games in a row in a league where Thomasville, North Rowan and Lexington usually were tough opponents. Salisbury won another CCC Tournament title and won three playoff games.

A talented North Rowan team won two playoff games and scored 109 points in a second-round road game. Salisbury beat the Cavaliers four times.

“Coach Perkins was a very good coach,” Smith said. “He taught me a lot this season. Mostly he taught us about consistency. There were some easy games where we knew we had our opponents overmatched, but he never let us get lazy.”

 

 

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