The Salisbury High School boys basketball team began playing its best basketball of the summer over the last month of the regular season portion of the Lehigh Valley Summer League. The Falcons won two of their last three games and four of their final five to race into the playoffs of the Small School Division last week.

Salisbury earned the three seed in the four-team playoff tournament and took on the second seed, Lehighton, in the semifinal round Wednesday, July 17.

It was a good matchup for the Falcons. Not only was it a test against a good team in the postseason, but the Indians will be joining the Colonial League this season so the teams will get to know each other quite well.

Salisbury (11-3 overall) gave Lehighton just its third loss of the summer and finished off a close game, winning 42-36 behind a team-best 13 points from Drew Petrie. The Falcons advanced to the championship game to take on the top seed, Warren Hills.

Salisbury once again used a strong defensive performance in the final to win gold and took down the Blue Streaks 37-27 last Friday night at Whitehall High School’s Dick Tracy gymnasium. This time, Steven Lozada helped pace the offense with a game-high 17 points, 11 coming in the second half.

“This league has been a good fit for us,” said head coach Jason Weaver. “Warren Hills is solid. Lehighton is really good. Brandywine beat us twice. Catasauqua was tough. It was good competition and facing each team twice was good. The league was well-run.”

The Falcons’ defense held Warren Hills to just 27 points after they scored 77 against the Rough Riders in the semifinal round just two nights prior.

“This was awesome when you consider we’re a young team with just one senior, Josh Holler, and don’t have the most experience,” Weaver said. “But when we play defense that way, we can win a lot of games. We held Lehighton to 36 and this team to 27. We made a lot of improvement last year. We lost a lot of guys and have a lot of guys coming back, so we’re excited.”

Salisbury is set to conclude its summer competition this weekend when it competes in the A-town Throwdown at Cedar Beach. The Falcons are in the 18-team play-in tournament and are Pool D, along with Fleetwood and Octorara. Their first game is set for Friday at 3 p.m., against Octorara. They play Fleetwood Friday at 7 p.m.