It’s been just about a month since the Salisbury boys basketball team lost a game.

The team is getting contributions up and down the lineup and the defense is turning into one of the better units in the Colonial League. The Falcons are not just winning, but they’re beating some of the teams that they may be seeing in the league and district playoffs.

One of those wins came against Northwestern Lehigh, which came to Salisbury High School with a three-game winning streak intact, only to have the Falcons end it in a 56-41 contest behind 23 points from Steven Lozada.

Both teams are capable of putting points on the board but combined to put up just 15 points in the first quarter with Salisbury taking a 9-6 early lead.

The difference turned out to be that while Northwestern was hitting two-pointers, the Falcons hit three shots from beyond the arc for a 27-18 lead going into halftime.

The second half was taken over by Lozada, who scored 16 of his 23 points in the final two quarters. Lozada was the hot hand on offense and junior Julian Makhoul handled the defensive spark for Salisbury.

Rebounding also played a role with Salisbury holding the edge there.. With 3:44 left in the third quarter Lozada pulled down an offensive rebound and quickly drove toward the basket for a layup to make it 37-23 to give the Falcons their largest lead of the night to that point.

The basket also capped off a quick 10-0 run for Salisbury that took just under two minutes off the clock.

“I like to keep the energy up,” said Makhoul of being the defensive spark. “No matter what, if we’re down or winning, it doesn’t matter because the best way to win games is to keep the energy up and keep battling.”

Northwestern opened the fourth quarter by putting together its first extended run of the night when it outscored Salisbury 9-2, cutting the lead to eight with 3:37 left to play. The Falcons made five of seven foul shots down the stretch to put the game away.

“I circled on the board tonight that we needed to rebound and play defense better than they would,” said Salisbury head coach Jason Weaver. “We have a good streak of not giving up more than 50 points in a game and that was going to be the key tonight.

“You can win games with defense when you’re struggling offensively. At Saucon we were struggling to make shots, but we held them down in the 30s, so we were OK. That was a big thing for us tonight.”

Lozada’s 23 points led all scorers and Makhoul finished with 15 points. For the Tigers, Brady Krimmel and Malachi Coleman both scored 11 points to lead the team.

Earlier in the week, Salisbury downed Saucon Valley in the first meeting between the two rivals this season.

The 42-30 win is a first step in the Falcons looking to avenge four losses to the Panthers last season, including ousting them from both the Colonial League and District 11 playoffs.

Makhoul had a game-high 15 points and Drew Petrie finished with 11.

“That was amazing. It was great,” said Makhoul of the win. “They beat us four times last year and we remember that.”

Makhoul also led the scoring in a 54-50 win over Catasauqua. Petrie had 12 points and Garrett Leiner had 11 in that win.

Salisbury (14-1 overall; 9-1 Colonial League) trails Notre Dame of Green Pond by a half game for the top spot in the Colonial League’s overall standings with the two teams playing this week. In the District 11 4A rankings, the Falcons are the top team with Northwestern being the only other team to clinch a spot in the district playoffs. The Falcons are also home Friday night against Wilson and will celebrate the 1,000th win of the program that night.