Salisbury was dealt a tough stack of cards in the Stellar “Catch A Rising Star” Basketball Showcase.

The Falcons opened up the four-day tournament on Thursday against Pocono Mountain West, a team from the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference that would go on to win the championship game against Whitehall. Two days later, Salisbury’s run came to an end against Dieruff, another tough matchup from the EPC that forced an unfamiliar 0-2 exit unlike prior years.

Despite the quick exit from Stellar, Falcon head coach Jason Weaver prefers to play those bigger schools that generally have more athleticism, speed and size than the Falcons are accustomed to seeing.

“We’re playing some teams with a little bit more quickness and size, and it’s what we need to see to make us better,” Weaver said. “We need to see teams like this because it sort of brings out the things we need to keep getting better at.”

The only team relatively close to anything Salisbury saw in summer league play was Lincoln Leadership and their athleticism. But the size mismatches that Pocono Mountain West and Dieruff presented Salisbury were unlike anything it had witnessed this summer so far.

“I think we’ve had some games over the summer where some of our issues are masked because we can just get a rebound over a guy, or we can get open by going 70 percent,” Weaver said. “I think playing against better competition shows us as coaches, and hopefully as players as well, the things we need to keep improving on and getting better on.

“We have to do a better job boxing out. We have to keep making the dive plays for loose balls and hustle plays and stuff that should be happening all the time. Our foot speed on defense, sort of our positioning, we have to keep getting better at.”

Some of those shortcomings popped up against the Huskies on Saturday afternoon when games were moved inside to Parkland High School. Salisbury, who trailed from the opening tip, struggled to generate solid offensive possessions and saw the Huskies generate open shots from all over the court en route to a 45-29 win.

And when that game was over ending their tournament lives, Weaver addressed his team regarding what improvements need to be made.

“Just because somebody is up in our face doesn’t mean we have to throw the ball all over the place,” Weaver said. “That’s not our strength against a team like that. We need to work for good shots. We need to move the ball. I think we saw that we became very one-pass-and-shoot.”

The offense was an issue against Pocono Mountain West as well. The Falcons managed just 54 combined points in two games, including a 70-25 defeat to the Cardinals on Thursday at Cedar Beach.

“We struggled to stop them [Pocono Mountain West] defensively,” Weaver said. “They pressured us and we went one pass and shot and really had bad turnovers. Against a team like that, you have to work the ball and you have to make them pay a little bit.”

It won’t be long before the Falcons are back on the court. But there’s going to be a sense of déjà vu when Salisbury returns to Cedar Beach for the SportsFest “A-Town Throwdown” tournament this week. A matchup against Dieruff once again awaits, with the two teams tipping off on Friday night. Staten Island and Souderton are also in that pool, with the winner receiving an automatic bid to Sunday’s single-elimination tournament.