The Salisbury High School boys basketball team has played very little zone defense this summer or during the past year. Tenacious an-to-man defense is a usually a trademark of head coach Jason Weaver’s teams.

The Falcons were short on numbers in their most recent summer league game and wanted to keep the players’ legs as fresh as possible. Weaver turned to a 2-3 zone and it worked against their rival.

Salisbury allowed just 38 points and used more team ball on offense in taking down the Spartans 49-38 last Thursday in Lehigh Valley summer league action at Cedar Beach Park in Allentown.

“They are always a tough team to beat so this was a good win for us,” said Weaver. “I was pleased overall because we did some things differently that we normally don’t do.

”We ran a 2-3 zone defensively, which we haven’t really worked on much, but it proved to be effective. The guys played good defense and rebounded well and really made it difficult on them.”

Offensively, the Falcons had one of their highest scoring outputs of the season. Just like on the other side of the court, Salisbury did some things on offense that Weaver was happy to see.

“We shared the ball a lot and communicated a lot better than we have been,” he said. “The movement of the guys helped create open shots for them. We used the screen game really well and scoring became easier with the movement and screening we ran.”

Jackson Lopez continued his breakout summer campaign. After leading his team in scoring at multiple games during the Bash at the Beach Tournament and other summer league games this offseason, Lopez once again led the way, recording 22 points.

“Jackson was hitting his shots tonight at a high level,” said Weaver. “He is a streaky shooter. When he is on and hits a couple of shots in a row, he can be really dangerous. Even better was that when defenders would double him, he found the open shooter and shared the ball.”

Salisbury sits at 4-5 overall in the summer league standings with two weeks left of the regular season to play before playoffs. There is also another summer tournament that the Falcons will play in, the A-Town Throwdown event at Cedar Beach at the beginning of August.

“We’ve had some guys missing due to various reasons, but as a whole I’m pleased with how the team is doing so far this summer,” Weaver said. “Younger guys have stepped up and earned playing time and I love seeing that. That is what summer basketball is about. We want to gel as a team and get everyone some valuable playing time.”