Tensions were high in the fourth quarter of a basketball game at the Boys and Girls Club on Sunday as a team of Reno's finest went up against Nevada's future. With a couple of swift moves and a few misses, the Cops barely got their men and won 86-84 after the Robbers made their way back from a 24-point gap halfway during the game.

"It felt good to come back," said Andre "City" Williams of Sparks, a member of the SALT program. "It took us a while to get it and get the team going. ... But it was tiring. We were trying to keep up with them and when they got tired we had to slow it down. But good luck and good job to them."

In a fundraiser to help three local programs, the "Cops and Robbers" was an amiable match-up between Reno's police officers and firefighters, appropriately called the Cops, and the teens and young adults involved in the Sparks-based Saving a Life Together program, or the Robbers.

More commonly known as SALT, the program provides alternatives to youth gang participation and also focuses on keeping teens away from drug and alcohol behaviors that lead to violence.

"Anything that prevents violence in our community is a win-win for everybody," said Mike Pilcher, RFD fire captain. "From my perspective, I deal with the trauma side. I see how it destroys lives and families. From the perspective of my law enforcement buddies, they deal with the criminal aspect and the enforcement. Anything that can prevent a young member of our community from going into that violent drug/gang cycle is something we support."

Reno police and firefighters practice two or three times a week at the BGC, Pilcher said, and the benefit resulted from the officers' interaction with Marcus Wood, who's in the SALT program. As a public servant, the captain added, there's a certain expectation for members of law enforcement and the fire department to be involved in community-oriented programs and to set examples for future generations.

"We wholeheartedly support this," Pilcher said. "It's geared toward at-risk youth between the ages of 10 and 19 and Marcus is a part of that."

On the court Sunday, the Robbers had the hometeam advantage at the Boys and Girls Club and had put in more practice than the Cops, said Pilcher, but the city of Reno employees must constantly remain in good shape with their demanding jobs.

The Robbers' "coach," Pastor Leslie Williams of Christ Bethlehem and executive director of SALT, stood on the sidelines throughout the whole game, cheering his team members on as they became more unified and aggressive by the fourth quarter.

His strategy?

"Defense, defense!" he said smiling.

No jeers were heard throughout the game. Both teams received equal amounts of applause, though the crowd typically favored the Robbers to offer extra encouragement. And team members were good sports all throughout the play, though Woods took a hit to the face and was down on the ground for about a minute, only to bounce back and claim, "That was a foul."

"The crowd was on our side; the (referee) wasn't," said SALT member Jaye Mitchell, 16. "He knows how to ref."

Mitchell acknowledged violence in Reno-Sparks communities.

"A lot of gangs have sprawled up from nowhere," Mitchell said. "I've been in Sparks for 15 years and I'm 21 now. I've had friends shot, get stabbed. This kind of stuff (the basketball event) lets (the gangs) know we are here to take back our streets. We're here to clean up all the violence. All the gangs need to go somewhere else."

SALT officially started up in September and it's been gaining traction under Williams' direction and guidance by its board of trustees.

Chairman Jason Kleinhenz, who helps promote the program and its events, was asked by Williams to participate.

"It started at the open house (in August) when I found there was an organization that cared more about the youth rather than just seeing them once or twice a week," Kleinhenz said. "I said, 'I need to be a part of that.' I didn't have the troubled youth background that many of these folks have had, but I said I was going to be involved, one way or another. When the executive director asked me to be the chairman, how could I say no?"

Former federal judge Brian Sandoval, who led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance, also supports SALT.

“I think it’s a great thing that law enforcement and firemen and the other individuals in the game would join together to support an organization that supports youth in our community,” Sandoval said. “You can never have enough of these programs.”

Williams said there are nine teens regularly attending SALT at Christ Bethlehem in Sparks.

"I am so proud of them not just for their comeback but for coming out here and putting their bodies on the line to raise money and awareness for the SALT program," Williams said.

SALT's portion of the funds from the Cops and Robbers game will go toward paying the organization's bills, Williams said, but donations are always welcome.

The fundraiser will also benefit the Evelyn Mount Community Outreach program

To contact Williams, call 355-6775 or send an e-mail to lesliewilliams@saltplan.com or info@savingalifetogether.com.