Tigers lose key CL game to Salisbury

In a matter of 4.8 seconds, emotions rose and fell on both sides of the court at Salisbury Friday night.

In the end, the Northwestern (11-10 overall, 8-8 Colonial) side wasn’t smiling as the Tigers fell to the Falcons 46-42.

The loss knocks Northwestern out of the Colonial League playoff picture with one regular season game left to play.

Senior Trey Weber hit two free throws to put Salisbury up 45-42 with 32 seconds left in regulation. On its next trip down the floor, Northwestern had a couple of opportunities, but unfortunately none of the shots that the Tigers put up fell. With :07.4 left to play, the ball bounded out of bounds, giving Salisbury (12-9, 9-7) possession on the baseline. As Joe Panariello looked to inbound the ball, he moved down the baseline and was called for travelling to give Northwestern the ball under the basket.

“That was one that we didn’t see coming,” said Tigers head coach Billy Hallman. “We knew we had a pretty good shot at getting someone open for a three at that point and tying the game up.”

Nick Henry had an open look for a three, but the ball bounced off the rim and was headed out of bounds before Luke Hallman made a save by tossing it back over his shoulder. The ball went right to back to Henry, who put up another shot from beyond the arc, but the ball again hit off the rim and went out of bounds.

Salisbury inbounded the ball and Northwestern (11-10; 8-8) quickly fouled Kenyo Herrera, who nailed the first of two free throws to make it 46-42 with :02.6 left to put the game away.

“We just couldn’t get shots to drop, especially late in the game. We had chances and we had good looks, but didn’t get the shots,” said Hallman. “It’s disappointing because we really battled back this season and we thought we had a really good shot at playing for a league championship, so this one hurts.”

Technically, Northwestern could still finish in a tie with Salisbury for the final playoff spot, but the Falcons would hold the tiebreaker over the Tigers. The first tiebreaker is head-to-head play and Salisbury beat the Tigers in both regular season games.

The two teams exchanged leads throughout the first quarter, but Salisbury started to hit some shots in the second frame. Weber’s jumper with 4:25 left before halftime put the Falcons up by four, and they stretched it to six when Patrick Foley drove the lane to make it 17-11. Chad Parton was fouled as he went up for a layup on a breakaway and then nailed the foul shot to give Salisbury a seven-point lead with 2:34 left in the second quarter.

The biggest lead of the night for Salisbury came when Herrera dropped in a three-pointer with 3:17 left in the game.

“You can’t be upset with how we played tonight,” said Hallman. “Our shooting just went cold and we couldn’t get anything to drop for us late in the game. We got ourselves kind of buried and couldn’t get our way out of it.”

Luke Hallman led all scorers with 15 points, while Weber led Salisbury with 10.

TIME TO RECUPERATE ... Northwestern has a number of players who have battled illness lately. Hallman is hoping that by the time districts roll around, all of his players will be fully recovered and will have had time to rest.

THE FINAL SPOT ... Salisbury hasn’t wrapped up the last Colonial League playoff spot yet. If it loses their final game against Southern Lehigh (16-4, 14-1) on Monday, Bangor (10-10, 8-8) could sneak its way into the final spot with wins in its final two games, which are against Palisades (10-10, 6-10) and Pen Argyl (2-18, 1-15).

NORTHWESTERN

Hebelka 0-2-2-2, Bollinger 2-2-5-6, McCann 2-0-0-5, Castrine 0-0-0-0, Henry 4-3-6-12, Hallman 6-3-4-15, Pleban 0-0-0-0, Garrido 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 15-9-16-42.

SALISBURY

Foley 1-0-1-2, Weber 4-2-2-10, Stephens 4-0-1-8, Zong 0-0-0-0, Herrera 1-1-2-4, Warmkessel 2-2-2-6, Panariello 4-0-1-9, Parton 2-3-4-7. TOTALS: 18-8-13-46.

Northwestern 8 8 13 13 - 42

Salisbury 7 15 10 14 - 46

Three-pointers: Northwestern - McCann 1, Henry 1; Salisbury - Herrera 1, Panariello 1.