Saugus got off to a sluggish start against Canyon but sophomore guard Nate Perez caught fire in the third quarter to help propel his team to a 73-44 win over Canyon Tuesday night at home.

The first quarter was plagued with turnovers from both teams and quickly turned into a defensive slog. Canyon was able to take advantage late in the quarter with some transition threes to find themselves with an early lead, 10-6, at the end of the first quarter.

Turnovers continued to be exchanged in the second quarter, however Saugus managed to consistently get back on defense and held Canyon to six points in the quarter while the Centurions rallied back to take a 20-16 lead by halftime.

Adrian McIntyre was a major part of Saugus second quarter rally, as the Centurions ran multiple plays to setup their veteran leader for looks in the low post which McIntyre executed on.

While he didn’t have a huge scoring night compared to some of his season highs, McIntyre was efficient with his shot selection and got involved in all facets of the game, he finished the night shooting 7-11 for 14 points with 7 rebounds and 6 assists.

The game took a different tone in the third quarter when Perez started lighting it up from deep for Saugus, forcing Canyon to take two timeouts within the span of a minute as they failed to find answers for Perez.

“He was off in the first half,” said Saugus head coach Alfredo Manzano. “Every dead ball situation I just kept telling him ‘you just have to keep shooting, you’re open you gotta keep shooting, don’t worry about the miss and don’t let that, most importantly, affect your defense,’ and I told him at halftime, ‘just keep launching man.’”

Perez took his coach’s words to heart and put up 21 points on 8-10 shooting in the third quarter. He went on to finish the night with seven made-threes, 29 points and six rebounds.

The big quarter put Saugus in the driver’s seat the rest of the way as they took a commanding 48-31 lead and never looked back on their way to the 73-44 win.

“At halftime we told each other we got to pick it up because we can’t lose this one because we need to start building up to go to playoffs,” said Perez. “We just got it together at halftime and just kept it going.”

Canyon now returns home for their final game of the regular season against Foothill League leader Valencia Friday night, while Saugus plays host to a Hart team fresh off a tough road loss to West Ranch for their league finale.

KHTS Sports is your place for the 2020 Santa Clarita high school winter sports 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.