The Salisbury girls' basketball team got off to a start that maybe it didn't expect against Southern Lehigh on Thursday night.

The Lady Falcons, which led by as many as 14 points in the first half, jumped out to an early 16-5 lead and led 31-19 as halftime hit.

But as the teams took the court to begin the third quarter, the Lady Spartans decided to flip the switch and turn up the defensive full-court pressure.

The Lady Spartans (17-5 overall; 15-1 in Colonial League) forced eight third-quarter turnovers and outscored the Falcons 29-6 in the frame to hold on for the 59-49 victory at Salisbury High School.

"We did OK in the first half dealing with the pressure, but in the second half we didn't do a very good job," head coach Joe Mladosich said. "It looked like we got a little tired."

Despite Southern Lehigh's dominant third quarter one in which the Lady Spartans erased a 12-point halftime deficit and took an 11-point lead into the fourth the Lady Falcons (16-6 overall; 12-4 in the Colonial League) were within striking distance late.

The Lady Falcons scored seven of the first 11 points of the fourth to get to within eight, but that's as close as they would get. Lindsay Bauer scored seven of her 15 points in the fourth quarter. She also added seven steals.

The Lady Falcons and Lady Spartans will meet for the third time this season in the Colonial League semifinals on Tuesday night at Catasauqua High School.

Mladosich and the Lady Falcons understand that his team's ball security has to improve in the rematch in order to be successful.

"Some are unforced turnovers, and passing the ball in the corner too far and things like that," Mladosich said. "We can make some corrections with that."

The Lady Spartans got a combined 25 points from Madyson Campbell (14) and Madelene McDonald (11) in that third quarter. As a team, the Lady Spartans shot 10-of-18 from the field compared to just two field goals on five attempts for the Lady Falcons.

"They hit a bunch of shots," Mladosich said. "But we didn't defend. They made shots, but we didn't defend very good."

With the two teams set to square off again in less than a week, Meagan Eripret (who scored a game-high 26 points) was held out for a good portion of the final quarter.

"She's been hurt," Mladosich said. "She didn't play on Tuesday, so I didn't know if there was any use to put her back in when we had to go man-to-man like that."

Eripret scored 19 points and made nine of her 11 field goal attempts in the opening 16 minutes to help the Lady Falcons hold that 31-19 advantage at halftime.

Leading the Spartans was McDonald with 22 points, nine rebounds and four assists. Campbell scored 17 points and Sydney Cyr added 11.

The winner of Tuesday's league semifinal game will face the winner of Northwestern and Bangor on Friday night at Freedom High School. Tipoff will be at 6 p.m.