Last year, Salisbury came up short to Parkland in the Trojans' annual boys basketball tournament, 60-52.

Fast forward a year to Saturday night's rematch of the two teams in the championship game of the Parkland Holiday Classic, and the result was a bit similar a hard-fought battle that saw the Falcons wind up on the losing end.

After trailing by 16 at halftime, the Falcons cut the Trojans' lead to eight early in the fourth quarter. That's as close as they would get, however, as the Trojans finished with a 16-7 run to secure the 69-52 victory.

"It's one of those games, almost like going back to that Blue Mountain game, that every time we didn't hedge out hard, or we let a guy open, or we came out with a hand down, they hit a shot," head coach Jason Weaver said. "They did it to us last year as well. Those guys are talented and they hit open shots."

Weaver understood that his team's defense in the first half, which allowed the Trojans 40 first-half points, had to improve for the Falcons to remain competitive.

And that they did coming out of halftime.

The Falcons allowed just 11 points in the third, and held the Trojans to a combined four of 12 shooting. Meanwhile, the offense picked up the scoring a bit and tallied 15 points in the third to cut a 40-24 halftime deficit to just 11 points going into the fourth.

"We gave up 40 points in the first half," Weaver said. "We're not going to give up 80. There's no way we can compete. We scored 24 points in the first half, and that's enough offensively."

The fourth quarter started with the Falcons scoring four of the first six points, getting them to within 53-45 with 6:27 to play.

Austin Uhl, who was named the game's MVP with 20 points and 11 rebounds, opened the fourth with a bucket to bring the Falcons to within 10. Justin Aungst hit a free throw to make it a nine-point game, and after the Trojans regained a double-digit lead on a layup from Justin Zajko, Uhl went to work again. Uhl connect on a three-point play on an assist from Aungst that brought it to 53-45.

That's when the Falcons' run came to a halt, as Parkland went on a late surge to end the game, including the next six points.

"Our effort was awesome," Weaver said. "This is a game that we have to build on. We were much more careful with the basketball today. We didn't have some of the turnovers we had yesterday [against Quakertown]. And our defense was better. We have to do that against everybody. We can't just bring that [second] half against Parkland."

Aungst had 14 points and six rebounds. Eddie Sanchez tallied nine points and three assists for the Falcons.

During last season's game, the Falcons erased a 22-6 deficit in the second quarter to lead by as much as four in the second half. The only lead the Falcons had on Saturday night was 3-2.

Zajko had 20 points (5-for-5 from the field) for the Trojans and was named the tournament's MVP. Jimmy Hahn added 11 points and six assists.

In the Falcons' first game of the tournament, they squared off against Weaver's former team, Quakertown, on Friday. After facing a 20-10 deficit early, the Falcons rallied to secure the 56-44 victory.

"We didn't get buried, and we said we were going to turn the pressure up," Weaver said. "The guys got some steals and made some shots."

Salisbury will be off until Friday, Jan. when it hosts the only other undefeated team in the Colonial League in Bangor, the North Division's leader. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at Salisbury High School.

Monday's game against Northampton was played after Press deadlines.