At one end of the floor Salisbury looked like a team that could compete for a Colonial League title. At the other end the Falcons just couldn’t match their opponent in last week’s boys quarterfinal.

Salisbury held Wilson to their lowest offensive total of the season in a 45-38 loss last Thursday at Wilson High School.

“We were crashing the boards and we’re not finishing or we bring the ball down and they steal it or we make a bad pass,” said Salisbury head coach Jason Weaver. “It’s frustrating because we play really hard, but I think we play with that same 100-percent energy on the defensive end. Sometimes offensively you’ve got to slow it back down a little bit and dribble back out, reverse the ball. We don’t do it enough.”

The Falcons took an early lead and held Wilson to just two points over the first six and a half minutes of the game. But four straight Warrior three-pointers in the final 1:28 of the quarter turned the Falcons four-point lead into a 14-6 advantage for Wilson late in the first quarter.

Warrior freshman Brady Westrbook came off the bench to hit two of those three pointers in the first quarter.

“That changed things,” said Weaver. “We knew he was hot. He hit a couple shots against Notre Dame the last couple games.

“That brought another shooter in and in the 1-3-1 we didn’t always adjust to finding him right away. That sort of changed momentum because the defense was playing really hard. We were forcing them into tough shots. But as they were missing early we weren’t taking advantage at the other end.”

Wilson held Salisbury to just one point in the second quarter to extend the lead to 24-9 at halftime. The Falcons cut the lead to 10 points twice in the fourth quarter but couldn’t get any closer.

The Warriors (16-7) average 54.7 points per game and have been held to 45 points just three times this season. They haven’t scored less than 45 in any of their 21 games.

“We hold them to 45 points, our defense has been solid all year,” said Weaver. “We just rush and take bad shots at times. There’s something better and we don’t always see it. We played hard. That’s what I’m most proud of. We’ve got to be able to get better shots on the offensive end.”

Nashawn Harris led Wilson with 14 points in the win, while Westbrook (12 points) and Shamel Gibson (10 points) also scored in double figures. The Falcons were led by Jackson Lopez with 14 points.

The Falcons have some time off before they try to make a run in the District 11 Class 3A playoffs where they will likely be the No. 5 seed and travel to Palmerton for a quarterfinal game on Saturday, Feb. 26.

The Falcons lost 54-37 at Palmerton in early January then dropped a 39-38 decision to the Blue Bombers at Salisbury less than two weeks later.

“We’ll have some time to get ready for whoever we are playing in about two weeks,” said Weaver. “We’ll make the adjustments that we need to have a good game plan and go out there and give it our best shot. Palmerton is a team that hammered us up there. We lost by one at our place. That’s a game that if we can execute offensively we have a shot.”