The Falcons put together back-to-back wins for the first time this season with victories over Palisades and Northern Lehigh. In their attempt to make it three in a row, the Catasauqua Rough Riders stepped up in the second half to end up with a 50-45 win.

“We played good defensively,” Salisbury head coach Jason Weaver said of the victories. “We gave up 43 one game and 28 the other. That’s the difference.

Against Northern Lehigh (1-14 Colonial, 1-19 Overall), sophomores Andrew Grejda and Jake Zellin led the way. Grejda finished with 12 points and Zellin had 10 to lead Salisbury (5-9, 5-13). Grejda hit two three-pointers in the game and as a team, the Falcons sank six threes.

In the loss to Catasauqua (4-11, 4-16), junior Tom Lovelidge scored 12 points. Salisbury led 25-18 at the half and built the lead to 10 points when Zellin hit a three-pointer in the first minute of the third quarter.

But freshman Franklin Pujols scored 22 of his 24 points in the second half, including two three-pointers and a six-for-six performance from the line to take over the game.

With Pujols’ help, the Roughies closed the gap to 32-31 after three quarters and took the lead in the final eight minutes of play.

“We stopped playing defense,” said Weaver. “We held them to 18 in the first half. They sort of got whatever they wanted in the second half. Our transition defense, we weren’t getting back. We were jogging back, some of us. We were getting beat off the dribble way too much.

“We put ourselves in a hole. We’re not a team that consistently makes shots so we have to be better on defense. And we weren’t.

Zellin and Lovelidge have battled back and forth for the team lead in scoring. Zellin currently averages 8.06 points per game and Lovelidge averages and even eight points per game.

Junior Andrew Grejda averages just under five points per game and is the one of the Falcons’ leaders on the other end of the court.

“Andrew Grejda has been the glue for us,” said Weaver. “He’s been playing solid defense. A lot of times he’s on [the opponent’s) best perimeter player. He will play wherever we need him on the offensive end and just does all the little things well. You don’t have to score to be effective on the basketball court. As we talk as coaches, Andrew is a guy who really holds us together and other guys have to play as hard as him defensively.”

Salisbury entered the season with a young team and just one senior played in Thursday’s game against Salisbury. The Falcons have had some ups and downs with a lot of players who are new to the varsity level this season.

“We’re inconsistent,” said Weaver. “Some games we can be pretty solid on defense and other games we don’t show up. We’re young, but it’s the 18th game of the season. It’s time to be consistent.

“There’s been a lot of good things. There’s been some growth, guys getting used to playing at the varsity level. We’re streaky. We have to work on getting our shots off. We’ve got to finishing in traffic. We’ve got to have the confidence that if we miss a shot we’re going to shoot the next one and make it. There’s been improvement but there’s a lot more work to do.”

The Falcons play at Northwestern Lehigh (8-10, 6-8) on Wednesday and host Palmerton (15-3, 11-3) on Friday before finishing their season next Tuesday at Southern Lehigh (12-6, 11-3).