One thing you can't question about the Salisbury girls' basketball team is its resiliency.

During the team's PIAA second round game against District 4's champ Mt. Carmel last week, the Falcons erased a 16-point deficit late in the third quarter to make it a one-point game with 2:25 to play.

However, the Lady Tornadoes of Mt. Carmel did just enough down the stretch, outlasting the Lady Falcons by a final of 60-56 on Tuesday night at Hamburg Area High School.

The Lady Falcons' season came to an end, but not without history being made for the 2014 squad. This season's run in the PIAA tournament tied the second-longest in program history. The Lady Tornadoes, meanwhile, advanced to the PIAA quarterfinals where they faced District 2's champ Dunmore.

"In the fourth quarter, once we scored a little bit, we picked up our intensity a little bit," head coach Joe Mladosich said. "But we waited too long. They're a good team and did a good job."

Trailing 50-40 heading into the fourth, the Lady Falcons' defense needed to rise to the occasion if the Falcons were looking for a way back in the game.

And it did.

After allowing 50 points through three quarters, including 19 in the first, the Lady Falcons' defense gave up just four points through the first six-plus minutes of the fourth. The Lady Tornadoes failed to record a field goal in the fourth until there was 1:36 left to play, and Mt. Carmel shot just 2-of-9 from the field in the final frame.

That defensive pressure led to 18 fourth-quarter points for the Lady Falcons. After scoring 10 of the first 14 points of the fourth, Meagan Eripret's three-point play with 2:25 remaining brought the Lady Falcons to within 54-53. Eripret scored 11 of the Lady Falcons' 18 in the fourth.

"They wanted it to be a full court game where they trap and stuff," Mladosich said. "We wanted it to be a half court game only. I thought we did a decent job of getting it at times into the half court."

However, Ali Varano, who led the Lady Tornadoes with 17 points-scored three straight, and Hamburg never looked back.

Despite being double-teamed for the entire game, Eripret put together another dominant effort against the under-sized Lady Tornadoes. She finished with a game-high 28 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks.

"I didn't think we got it to her enough at times when she was open," Mladosich said. "It's tough. They're pressuring the ball a little bit so sometimes it's hard to see in there."

While it was the Lady Falcons who jumped out to an 11-6 lead in the first quarter, the three-point shooting of the Lady Tornadoes kept Mt. Carmel very much alive.

The Lady Tornadoes hit four of their first five three-pointers, including three in the first quuarter by Paige Hornung. For the game, the Lady Tornadoes made seven from beyond the arc.

"We saw two of their games, and they didn't make an outside shot at all," Mladosich said. "Then today, they didn't miss an outside shot. We should've probably switched to man earlier, but our man didn't help us in the third quarter at all."

Kelly Gonoude and Kelly Garrigan each scored six points for the Falcons. Isabella Stellar (15 points), Jen Bolick (11 points) and Hornung (nine points) paced Mt. Carmel.

"Obviously we've gotten better, and they've grown as a group of kids here," Mladosich said. "We'll build on that. We have two seniors who we'll miss returning to the locker room."