SALISBURY - After trailing by just three points at the half, Northwestern's shooting went cold and it dropped a 54-38 Colonial League decision to Salisbury on Saturday.

The Tigers' Robby Seyfried came out strong with five first quarter points to keep his team within 11-9 after eight minutes of play. After that strong first quarter, Salisbury started to key on Seyfried a little more and was able to contain him, but could still only build its lead to 23-20 by halftime."We've talked about having a good effort and a good attitude and getting into the game. I think today we came with that attitude and it showed," said Northwestern coach Billy Hallman. "Defensively, we competed from the opening tip and that's what we've got to do to keep ourselves in games and eventually, the offense will come around," .The strong defensive play continued in the second half of the game for Northwestern, but the Tigers just couldn't get a shot to fall. Eventually, Salisbury was able to mount more offense and held the Tigers to just five third quarter points, pushing the lead to 36-25.The heat never did come back on for Northwestern's shooting and Salisbury went on a streak that saw it take over the game."We just struggled to make a shot today," said Hallman. "We got good looks, shots that we wanted, we just couldn't put the ball in the basket. It was one of our better defensive efforts of the year, but it came down to scoring."Northwestern tried different combinations and got the ball to a number of players, but none of them could get on an offensive roll to help cut into the lead against a strong Falcon team that had averaged over 60 points per game coming in.LOSING STREAK ... Northwestern has now lost three straight games.RECORD UPDATE ... Northwestern falls to 2-5 in the league and 4-5 overall. Salisbury improves to 5-2 league, 7-3 overall.TOP SCORERS ... The Falcons' Jack Reichenbach led all scorers with 21 points,. Trevor Cunningham and Deven Bollinger each scored eight points.NORTHWESTERNKemmerer 0-1-2-1, Cunningham 4-0-2-8, Hippensteel 0-0-0-0, Yadush 3-0-0-7, Freeman 2-0-0-4, Bollinger 3-1-3-8, Fatzinger 0-0-0-0, S. Seyfried 1-0-0-3, Hallman 0-2-2-2, R. Seyfried 2-0-0-5. TOTALS: 15-4-9-38.SALISBURYGalantini 0-2-2-2, Foster 0-2-2-2, Kulp 0-0-2-0, Sylvester 0-0-0-0, Reichenbach 8-2-4-21, Stewart 0-0-0-0, Slutsky 4-2-3-11, Costello 3-4-4-11, Trainer 0-0-0-0, Frankenfield 0-0-0-0, D. Snyder 0-0-0-0, Jones 1-1-3-3, Hernandez 0-0-0-0, S. Snyder 1-2-2-4. TOTALS: 17-15-22-54.Northwestern 9 11 5 13 - 38Salisbury 11 12 13 18 - 54Three-Pointers: NW - Yadush 1, Bollinger 1, S. Seyfried 1, R. Seyfried 1; Salisbury - Reichenbach 3, Slutsky 1, Costello 1.