The Selma Saints had a chance to tie it late, but ultimately fell short in their 53-48 loss to the No. 4 Wilcox-Central Jaguars at home on Friday.

Mark Dukes, head boys basketball coach of Wilcox (15-3, ranked No. 4 in Class 4A), said he’s proud of his team for holding on to get the win.

“I think we played pretty good defense in the latter part of the fourth quarter. We had a cushion, so we tried to run some time off the clock, and they played pretty good defense, too, and we got in foul trouble,” Dukes said. “Each foul counted because we were in the bonus. But overall, I’m proud of the guys for sticking in there and staying focused.”

Woodie Jackson, head boys basketball coach of Selma (1-12), said the Saints had a chance, but made some key mistakes late.

“Defensively, we just didn’t execute on the man,” Jackson said. “Offensively, we just took too long to get the last shot off. We still had a chance in the end, but we let them score on offense.”

Wilcox led 47-38 midway through the fourth, until Selma’s Juwan Watters buried a 3-pointer to make it 47-41 with 3:50 left to play.

The Saints capitalized off a Jaguars’ turnover and Keshawn Ford finished off the fast break with a layup that brought Selma closer at 47-43 with 3:21 left.

After a Wilcox foul put the Saints in the bonus, Ford hit one free throw and Kahmaul Jones hit two more for Selma to make the score 47-46 with 2:51 remaining.

Freddie Smith hit a pair of free throws for the Jaguars after a shooting foul to extend the Wilcox lead to 49-46, but Ford hit two more free throws to bring the Saints within one at 49-48 with 1:17 left.

Smith came up big again, scoring on a layup to extend the lead to 51-48 with 57 seconds to go.

The Saints ran the clock down to under 20 seconds and found Watters open behind the arch, but he missed the shot and the Jaguars got the rebound and closed the game with a transition basket.

Ford led Selma with 15 points, while Jones had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

DeMario Gunn added 8 points and 7 rebounds for Selma.

Smith led all scorers with 18 points.

Lorenza Dale had 9 points for the Jaguars.

Selma will take the floor again Saturday at home against Southside with games starting at 4 p.m.