Salisbury’s basketball team found out what it feels like to get hit by an oncoming freight train in a dark tunnel, here Saturday evening on the campus of Marywood University.

A powerful and quick Scranton Prep dazed the Falcons from the onset, when the Cavaliers went right for the juggler and proceeded to force multiple turnovers on the visitors and the end result turned into a 99-66 loss in this opening round of the PIAA Class 4A tournament.

It wasn’t so such much the deficit, it was the way Salisbury kept struggling against a team that engaged an old defensive tactic: jump and run. Prep wanted to double on the ball in the backcourt, force the guards into mistakes, force an up-tempo approach.

“We just couldn’t handle the pace,” admitted Jason Weaver head Salisbury coach. “We don’t see that type (of defense) in our league, and if we did, we just slowed things down to our liking.”

The Falcons couldn’t make it work the way they liked it and by the half they were down 60-26.

“They got that big lead, and we’re struggling at the half,” said Weaver. “It’s not the way we like to play. But they’re such a great team. They caused all of those (turnovers). We wanted to get the ball into our (bigs), where we are more effective.”

Salisbury hung its hat on the hook early when it trailed 9-8. Junior guard Jack Reichenbach pumped in 27 of his teams’ points, cracking the stingy Scranton Prep defense. Reichenbach drained a pair of early swishes, and teammate Sean Snyder chipped in with a deuce at the 3:50 mark of the first period to get within one-point.

Thereafter, the Prep train got a full head of steam, and before hitting the first depot, it had whizzed to a 22-8 lead and a 24-8 cushion by quarters end. Jake Brown started the engine on a fastbreak.

The Cavaliers’ 6-7 sophomore Leo O’Boyle pulled down 11 rebounds and fired in a team-high 17 points, one of six players from his team in double figures.

“We talked about speeding up their guards all week long,” offered Prep’s dapper-dressed coach Andrew Kittle, “and the message was received. We were flying around the floor. It was fun to watch.”

Kittle’s game approach was to get help inside on defense by engaging the trap outside.

“Their post players (Ryan Slutsky and Jaxon Costello) are very good inside,” said Kittle. “We wanted to take them out of their rhythm and we did a good job of that.”

Things got crazy in the first two minutes of the second period, when the Cavaliers went on a pair of scoring runs. They ran off the first 10 pints uncontested fueled by a Brett Para jumper and ended on a Nick Dende triple.

Reichenbach interrupted the run with a trey before Prep went bonkers once more. This time the top ranked team from District 2 went on a 16-2 tizzy highlighted when Para slammed home a dunk, and Paddy Casey slipping home a pair of deuces.

“We play hard, sometimes we don’t play smart,” said Weaver. “We’ve had some success, three 20 wins seasons in a row. We have to take that next step to compete at the state level.”

Depth and quickness were ever so apparent in favor of Prep. Their defense and fastbreak were the keys to the victory. The Falcons struggled with handling the ball and had 15 first-half turnovers and 25 total.

Reichenbach was the star on the side of the Falcons. He is indeed a sharpshooter, and was never overmatched.

Scranton Prep missed a seventh player in doubles with Casey getting nine. The winners out-rebounded Salisbury 39-19 and were blistering hot shooting nearly 57-percent from the floor (39-68); Falcons 22-of-44.

Kittle called the ponies off in the last 70 seconds; he instructed his team not to take another shot. Prep (23-3), the District 2 champ, takes on District 12 champ Imhotep Wednesday.

The Falcons, which earned third-place in District 11 this season, end the season at 20-8. They graduate six seniors from the team, including three starters in Costello, Slutsky and Blake Jones.

SALISBURY

Reichenbach 12-0-0-27, Jones 3-0-0-7, Costello 2-1-2-5, Sylvester 1-0-0-3, S. Snyder 1-0-0-2, Slutsky 0-2-2-2, Galantini 0-0-0-0, Foster 0-0-0-0, Kulp 0-0-0-0, Trainer 0-0-0-0, Frankenfield 0-0-0-0, D. Snyder 0-0-0-0, Blackledge 0-0-0-0. Totals: 19-3-7-46.

SCRANTON PREP

O’Boyle 6-3-3-17, Dende 5-0-0-13, Bailey 5-1-1-12, Simons 5-0-0-11, Para 5-0-2-10, Bormes 3-3-3-10, Casey 4-0-1-9, Brown 1-3-4-5, Bednarz 2-0-0-5, Schermerhor 1-0-0-3, Roland 1-0-0-2, N. Greco 1-0-0-2, Rotell 0-0-0-0, D’Ella 0-0-0-0, Merritt 0-0-0-0, M. Greco 0-0-0-0. Totals 39-11-14-99.

Salisbury 8 18 9 11 – 46

Scr. Prep 24 34 26 13 – 99

3-point FG: S-Reichenbach 3, Jones, Sylvester. SP-Dende 3, O’Boyle 2, Bailey, Simons, Bormes, Casey, Bednarz, Schermerhorn.