In Monday night's divisional game against Notre Dame (Green Pond), Salisbury understood that the way it played in the first half wasn't a recipe for success.

The Falcons' defense allowed 31 first-half points to the Crusaders, and Salisbury stared at a three-point deficit at the break. The focus during halftime was to improve upon its defense in the final 16 minutes.

And that's exactly what Salisbury did.

The Falcons, now a perfect 7-0 in the Colonial League (10-3 overall), allowed seven third-quarter points and held a double-digit lead with 2:12 to play in the period. The Falcons increased that led to 20 points before defeating the Crusaders (4-8 overall; 2-4 in Colonial League) at Salisbury High School.

"It was shaky in the first half, but we came out in the second half and really improved our defense," Falcon forward Justin Aungst said. "It was huge to come out and get a win here. We know their big guy [Vincent Eze] went down with an injury, and we had to take advantage of that when we could. The first half wasn't our best effort, but we definitely came out in the second half and stepped up."

Aungst recorded 17 points, but he certainly wasn't the only one having a solid day on the offensive end. Eddie Sanchez recorded a career-high 28 points, and hit all nine of his field goals (including all five from three-point range), while Austin Uhl tallied 15 points, 16 rebounds and four blocks.

"I'm just a very confident player," Sanchez said. "I know what shots I can make and I know shots that are efficient for me. When I can take them I'm going to take them. I'm just confident, and today was a day that they all fell in."

During the Falcons' run in the third quarter, Aungst went on a spurt, scoring eight of the next 10 Salisbury points to increase their lead to 49-35.

After Eddie Sanchez hit a three-pointer from the right wing, and Austin Uhl hit a free throw to give the Falcons a six-point lead with 3:22 to play in the quarter, Aungst began his scoring spree. He connected on consecutive three-point layups to push the lead to 45-33. After trading hoops with the Crusaders, Aungst added another layup to make it 49-35 in favor of the Falcons.

"I wanted to step up the intensity on the defensive end, and usually that turns into offense for me," Aungst said. "I wasn't really attacking the basket as much in the beginning of the game."

The offense certainly had a strong third quarter, scoring 21 points on seven of 12 shooting from the field. But it was the Falcons' aggressive defense that was the difference maker. The Crusaders hit just three of 13 shots in that third quarter.

Salisbury head coach Jason Weaver urged his team to play better defense in the second hald.

"He [Weaver] was upset with our defense [in the first half]," Aungst said. "That's our key to winning. We knew Tanner Reed was going to shoot the ball and he was going to score. Our goal was to shut down all of the other guys."

"He [Weaver] said that the reason why we were in the position that we were in was because of our defense," Sanchez said. "We gave them easy layups, and they were getting all of the 50-50 balls."

After Notre Dame's Jordan Jachim hit a three-pointer to cut the Falcons' lead to eight early in the fourth quarter, the Falcons scored the next nine points to push it back to, 58-41.

The Falcons jumped out to an early 9-4 lead, and led by three after the first eight minutes before the Crusaders used an 18-12 advantage in the second quarter to regain the lead going into halftime.

Tanner Reed recorded 16 points and 11 rebounds, while Austin Gregg tallied 14 points for the Crusaders.

The Falcons will next host Palmerton on Friday at 7 p.m. Results from Tuesday's game against Catasauqua was played after Press deadlines.