Heading into Friday's Salisbury Girls Basketball Holiday Tournament, the Falcons had trouble finishing out their last two contests against Southern Lehigh and Blue Mountain. Both resulted in close losses down the stretch.

After a 52-34 win over Hatboro-Horsham on Friday in the Falcons' tournament, Salisbury once again had a bit of trouble closing out Fleetwood in the championship game on Saturday afternoon.

The Falcons, which trailed by six at halftime and four after the third quarter, rallied to take a 48-47 lead with 4:50 remaining. However, Fleetwood responded with an 11-5 run to close out the game and capture the championship with a 58-53 victory at Salisbury High School.

"Their effort is good," Salisbury head coach Joe Mladosich said. "We just continuously need to finish those games that are close. Right now, we're letting a few of them slip away. But their effort was good and the kids played well."

Meagan Eripret, who finished with 28 points and 10 rebounds, scored on a layup from Holly Szita that gave the Falcons that brief one-point lead with under five minutes to play.

But after the teams were deadlocked at 50 apiece, Fleetwood went on to score eight of the next 10 points to secure the win. Kendra Bamberger, the tournament's Most Valuable Player, hit two free throws to make it 52-50.

Kelly Garrigan then hit one of two free throws to bring the deficit back to one, but Lauren Lister (a member of the All-Tournament team) scored on a layup and hit two free throws to make it a five-point game with 24 seconds to play.

Lister finished with a team-high 20 points for Fleetwood.

Despite Eripret picking up her second foul late in the first quarter, the Falcons managed to stick with Fleetwood until she returned to the court.

It was Eripret, however, who helped the Falcons overcome a three-point deficit early in the second quarter. After checking back in with 5:25 to play in the first half and facing a 21-18 deficit, Eripret scored the next six Falcons points to tie the game, 24-24.

Fleetwood, however, ended the half on an 11-4 run to regain control. Fleetwood connected on six three-pointers, including five in the first half that helped solidify their 35-29 at the break.

"We didn't get out in the zone to play them on the wings," Mladosich said. "Last year we had played them, and they hit six threes. We just didn't get out."

While Eripret was in foul trouble early in the game, a number of Fleetwood's players in the frontcourt picked up a few costly fouls that allowed the Falcons to switch to a man-to-man defense in the second half after playing zone for the first 16 minutes.

The switch allowed the Falcons to erase that six-point halftime deficit to just one point early in the third quarter.

"They're a very good team," Mladosich said. "They have some very good athletes and very good shooters. I didn't think in the first half we competed very well defensively. In the second half, we changed a few things and we competed very well."

Bamberger added 12 points and six rebounds for Fleetwood, while Isabella Mullen and Xiomara Toledo each scored nine points.

Lindsay Bauer scored six points for the Falcons, while Kelly Gonoude, Amanda Rowlands and Garrigan each scored five. Eripret and Bauer were also selected as members of the All-Tournament team.

Monday's game against Notre Dame-Green Pond was played after Press deadline. The Falcons' next game will be at Bangor on Friday night.