Every basketball team gets hot and cold when it comes to shooting. But Saturday Salisbury head coach Joe Mladosich watched the Falcon girls team struggle more than it has all season in a 43-22 loss to Northwestern.

“I think this is the first time we’ve ever [shot] like this for four quarters,” Mladosich said after his team went 5-for-39 from the field against the Tigers in New Tripoli on Saturday afternoon. “We got nothing off of the press today. I’ll give credit to Northwestern. They played well defensively. They always do, but we have to make shots. You can’t shoot 1-for-19 from [behind the three-point line] and expect to beat anyone. Offensively, we were horrible today.”

Northwestern stymied Salisbury (6-6 overall, 4-4 Colonial League) for the entire contest as the Flacons did not score more than six points in any quarter. Salisbury’s top scorers Caylin Meikrantz and Sarah McGee combined for just six points. Olivia Hoeing led Salisbury with five points.

Mladosich noted that his team’s shooting has declined as of late.

“We haven’t been shooting well,” he said. “When you play teams that aren’t as competitive as Northwestern you can get away with it, but today when you play someone with some quality, you can’t. You can’t beat anyone with stats like that.”

Paige Nicholas and Kyra Bruns scored three and two points, respectively, for the Falcons.

Despite the offensive output, Mladosich did take solace in his team’s defense.

“Some of our kids played well defensively,” he said. “I’m not saying our effort wasn’t good, but we have to work harder to get better and right now we are not. We will change that.

“We’ve got to work to get better offensively. Sometimes it is hard work to get open and at this point we aren’t doing it. We will get back to work, play better defense and try to get some points off the press. We will go from there.”