Saugus appeared to be on the verge of running away with the game in the third quarter Friday night, but Hart had a ferocious rally to force overtime before they ultimately fell to the Centurions, 97-95.

It was all Adrian McIntyre early for the Centurions, who looked to their senior guard to set the tone against Hart and came up with 13 of his team’s 19 first quarter points.

On the other side, Hart was continually able to find center Ruke Agbabune for easy back cuts in the first quarter, as he scored nine of his eleven points for the night that quarter.

At the end of one quarter of play, Saugus had a narrow lead, 19-17. Both teams made adjustments between quarters as Saugus looked to shut down the back cuts and Hart zeroed in on McIntyre.

The two teams tweaked their approaches and continued to trade buckets through the second quarter, and looked evenly matched as Saugus went into the half with a 38-35 lead. 

After the adjustments, Hart brought a very balanced attack through the rest of the night, as three players scored more than 20 points, Dillion Barrientos, Ty Penberthy and Brady Dunlap.

In the third quarter, McIntyre looked reinvigorated as he hustled his way to eleven points with some tough offensive rebounding and work in the low post while his team struggled to hit their shots from deep. 

“We have ten seniors and they only have a couple so we knew that we had to come out here and show them what a four-year athlete is,” said McIntyre. “By us overpowering them and being able to get buckets down low that’s what helped us get this win.”

McIntyre went on to finish the night with a near triple-double and a team high 34 points, 19 rebounds, 8 assists. He was also able to get up to throw down a couple of dunks, sending the Saugus crowd into a frenzy.

“It’s definitely an adrenaline pumper for me, being able to get the whole gym pumping,” McIntyre said. “I honestly didn’t think I was going to get up like that on that first dunk, but I did it and the crowd went crazy so that kind of gave us momentum.”

Davis White used some of that momentum when came in off the bench for the Centurions and nailed back-to-back threes, Stephen Tampus followed that with a lay up to make it a 9-0 run and force a Hart timeout.

Hart’s Barrientos looked absolutely locked in after the timeout, and was able to make two threes of his own to stop the bleeding and keep the game from getting out of hand. Hart went into the fourth quarter down 58-47.

That’s when things really started to heat up, Saugus sophomore guard Nathan Perez found his rhythm after a cold first three quarters and was nailing shots all over the floor but Hart’s Brady Dunlap had all the answers.

The 6’6 freshman was a man possessed as he continued to find ways to create space and elevate for shots from deep to score 11 points with three made threes in the fourth. Dunlap went on to finish the night with 25 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists with five made threes.

Dunlap’s outpouring plus a three from Penberthy and a few trips to the line was enough for Hart to claw their way back into the game. Penberthy officially tied it up from the line with less than 10 seconds to play and forced overtime.

Perez and Dunlap’s hot streaks carried over into overtime as the two sharpshooter’s continued to trade shots late in the game. 

Perez had 24 of his 29 points for the game in the fourth quarter and overtime and chipped in with 7 rebounds and 3 assists.

“Nate is a great player, he can turn that switch on anytime and that’s what he did tonight” McIntyre said. “He stepped up big when we really needed him to, they started sending doubles at me and then Nate took over.”

All it took was one Hart miss, and Saugus was able to grab a two possession lead that they never let go of, picking up the 97-95 win.

With the win, Saugus clinched a second place finish in Foothill League and dropped Hart into third.

KHTS Sports is your place for the 2019 Santa Clarita high school football season and your Santa Clarita Dodgers coverage. Find all the latest news and updates on your hometown schools here as they compete in the Foothill League, Heritage League, Western State Conference and GSAC.