PORTLAND -- The South Salem Saxons wanted Friday night’s game at No. 2 Jesuit so badly, they almost let it slip away.
“I think we were just getting a little antsy,” senior point guard Jaden Nielsen-Skinner said of surrendering a six-point lead in the last two minutes. “We were just trying to hang on.”
But Nielsen-Skinner made sure the seventh-ranked Saxons had a happy ride home, nailing a jumper from just inside the three-point line with two seconds left to give them a 59-57 win in a 6A nonleague boys basketball game.
The Portland State-bound Nielsen-Skinner finished with a game-high 24 points and senior Treyden Harris added 12 points for South Salem (7-3), which led by as many as eight points early in the fourth quarter.
The Saxons finished a difficult stretch on a high note as they head into Mountain Valley League play next week. They went 1-3 at the Les Schwab Invitational last week, losing to No. 1 Jefferson, Skyview (Wash.) and Churchill, the No. 2 team in 5A.
“Just coming off the LSI, we knew we were going to have a five-game span where it was going to show our true character,” South Salem coach Tyler Allen said. “Momentum is everything in high school basketball, and to be able to start our league Tuesday, with a pivotal win tonight, it’s big for us.”
For Jesuit (8-4), the loss is a pothole after beating No. 3 Lake Oswego, No. 5 Barlow and No. 8 West Linn in the LSI. The Crusaders open Metro League play Tuesday with a tough home game against Southridge.
“We’re used to being the aggressor when we play teams, and we got out-aggressed this game, which definitely threw us off,” said Jesuit senior guard Justin Bieker, who led his team with 18 points. “We can’t let that happen as a team. For us to win games, we’ve always got to be the ones that are pushing the pressure and playing harder.”
It was clear from the outset, though, that South Salem came to play. Spurred by their fans and a vocal bench, the Saxons came out as if they had a chip on their shoulders.
Nielsen-Skinner and junior guard Trey Galbraith picked up technical fouls in the first half, and the raucous South Salem bench drew a warning from an official moments later.
“It’s like that all the time,” Nielsen-Skinner said of team’s bench. “Our guys bring the energy on the bench. I love it.”
Allen said the intensity started with the bench.
“I want to give them credit. They don’t get any minutes on the court, but they bring it every day on the road,” Allen said. “Especially on the road, Christmas break, we’ve got to find energy somewhere.”
The Crusaders found themselves on their heels.
“We didn’t come out and start the game well enough,” Bieker said. “Their pressure was getting to us. And to go where we want to go, we just can’t do that. We’ve got to come out every game, no matter who it is, and just play our game. We just didn’t execute, and we let them get ahead, and that cost us in the end.”
South Salem led 32-27 at half, and after Jesuit took a brief 41-40 lead late in the third quarter, Nielsen-Skinner hit a three-pointer to spark a 12-3 run that put the Saxons ahead 52-44 with five minutes left.
Senior guard Ryan Brown gave South Salem a jolt with his hustle during the surge. He had a rebound basket and a blocked shot, then made an acrobatic save of a loose ball from the baseline to beyond the three-point line to Nielsen-Skinner, who found Brown with a no-look pass for a layup that sent the Saxons into a frenzy.
Brown finished with 11 points.
“Ryan Brown is forever going to be our pivotal guy,” Allen said. “At times he kind of shrinks to Treyden and Skinny and Trey, and doesn’t really utilize his athleticism. When we see this Ryan Brown that we saw tonight, we know we’re going to have a good run ahead of us. We’ve got to find that consistent motor for him.”
South Salem led 57-51 when Jesuit junior guard Matthew Levis hit back-to-back three-pointers, the second one for a 57-57 tie with 1:18 left. Galbraith and Bieker traded misses, and the Saxons got the ball with 25 seconds to go.
Nielsen-Skinner walked it up, ran the clock down and swished a jumper with 2.2 seconds on the clock to make it 59-57. After a Jesuit timeout, Levis missed a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer.
“We chose not to call a timeout because the ball was in the right guy’s hands, and he made the most of it,” Allen said of Nielsen-Skinner.
Nielsen-Skinner summoned the energy down the stretch despite feeling under the weather.
“I’ve been sick since the LSI,” he said. “I’ve had a cough for a while. I felt like I was going to throw up at halftime. But I had to gut it out, get this win for my guys.
“It was for sure a great one because we came up a little short at the LSI. Battled against Jeff, all the good teams. I think winning this game will put us in good shape for league.”
