WILMINGTON — Dover High was clearly the better team on Salesianum’s home court on Tuesday night.

But the Senators may have to wait until another day to see where they really stand against the Sals.

Dover never trailed in rolling to a 72-52 victory over defending DIAA state champion Sallies in a boys’ basketball showdown.

The Sals, however, were playing without three starters and their head coach in the matchup.

Head coach Taylor Trevisan and assistant Kerry Kinard as well as players R.J. Johnson and Kareem Thomas were all suspended after Sallies’ contest with Saint Mark’s last week ended with a post-game altercation.

The Sals were also missing a third starter, Justin Hinds, because of an injury.

The Senators (15-2) were impressive, nonetheless, in stretching their winning streak to seven games in a row.

Dover coach Stephen Wilson said he’d heard Tuesday morning about Sallies’ situation. But he didn’t want the Sals’ missing players to distract the Senators.

“It still says ‘Sallies’ across the chest,” said Wilson. “They don’t have just three guys on their roster. The team they played with was probably bigger than the team that they start with.

“It was another game that we needed to take another stepping stone in the right direction. ... We needed to perform and do what we needed to do.”

Senior guard Denim Perkins put up 26 points after sinking four three-pointers and netting 18 first-half points. Dorell Little added 18 points with JayVion Denis scoring 14.

Dover opened up a 33-15 advantage in the second quarter when Perkins hit his fourth three-pointer of the half. A 9-0 run by the Sals (10-8) got them back within 35-24 early in the third quarter.

Sallies, though, never got the Senators’ lead under 12 points the rest of the way.

Dover’s advantage grew to as much as 71-47 in the closing minutes.

The Senators have now beaten both Sanford and the Sals on the road, while falling by just one point at St. Elizabeth this season.

“It’s not like we’re shying away from competition,” said Wilson. “We’re not sitting back and acting like we’ve arrived. We won another basketball team and we played OK. We did our job.”

Dover and Sallies have met three times in the state tournament since 2018. The Sals won two of those three meetings.

Sallies, which is 6-3 against Delaware schools this winter, got 21 points from Isiah Hyson, including 16 in the second half.

The Senators, who are 11-0 in the Henlopen North, close the regular season with division games at Milford on Thursday night and at Smyrna and Sussex Central next week.

Ruggerio.com