ALLENTOWN – On Saturday, Jim Thorpe met host Salisbury with both teams looking for a rare win.

With just six victories between the two teams, the game didn’t draw a lot of attention.

But with both teams having rosters full of young players to build around, the contest may be one of the highlight games on the schedule a couple of years down the road.

In this meeting, possession became the story as the Olympians had 28 turnovers and fell to Salisbury 38-17 in Colonial League action.

Freshman Ryah Confer Thorpe finished with 11 points, while senior Brianna Snisky pulled down 15 rebounds — four of which were on the offensive end.

“Snisky did a great job for us on the boards today,” said Jim Thorpe head coach Anthony Thomas. “She brings experience to the table, and we expect a lot out of her and sometimes that puts a lot on her shoulders, but she’s a senior and I think she can handle it.”

The first quarter looked much like the game it figured to be with both taking turns having the hot hand.

Salisbury opened with a pair of baskets to take a 4-0 lead before Jim Thorpe came back with six unanswered points, led by three from Confer.

With the Olympians up 6-4, Salisbury’s Sophia Gunning sank a three-pointer with three seconds on the clock to give the Falcons a one-point lead at the end of the first eight minutes of play.

Jim Thorpe stayed close despite turning the ball over seven times in the quarter and going just 4-for-11 from the foul line.

Nine turnovers hampered the Olympians in the second frame as Salisbury scored the first eight points of the quarter and took a 16-9 halftime advantage. The only points that Jim Thorpe scored came from the free throw line, where they went 3-for-6.

“When I look at this game, I think they out-hustled us,” said Thomas. “They beat us to every 50/50 ball and loose ball. We got away from trying to move the ball through passing and tried to move the ball through dribbling and we got ourselves in some trouble.

“Our turnovers really hurt us, and then our free throws were horrendous today. We practice them and do them a lot, but we just came up really short in that area.”

Salisbury put the game away as they went on a 15-0 run that started at the beginning of the third quarter and extended to the midway point of the fourth quarter to take a commanding 31-9 lead.

The run was aided both by a stronger Salisbury defense, and the fact the Falcons were able to do a better job of boxing out Snisky than they had done in the first half.

Confer scored the final eight Olympian points.

Another young player — Salisbury freshman Roxana Cardenas — came off the bench to score 10 of her 13 points in the final eight minutes.

OUTNUMBERED … Both teams have just one senior and two juniors on their rosters. Salisbury has four sophomores and four freshmen, while Jim Thorpe has three sophomores and five freshmen.

JIM THORPE

Snisky 1-0-2-2, Yeakel 0-2-2-2, Lees 0-1-2-1, Bos 0-0-2-0, Balliet 0-0-0-0, Res 0-0-0-0, Yuhas 0-1-4-1, Confer 3-3-10-11. TOTALS: 4-7-22-17.

SALISBURY

Cardenas 5-1-6-13, Scialla 0-0-0-0, S. Suleiman 1-0-0-2, Nimeh 1-0-0-2, Morgan 3-2-6-8, M. Suleiman 1-0-0-2, Ehrie 0-0-0-0, Gunning 1-0-0-3, Gonzalez 2-2-2-6, Kemmerer 1-0-0-2. TOTALS: 15-14-5-38.

Jim Thorpe 6 3 0 8 - 17

Salisbury 7 9 7 15 - 38

Three-pointers: Jim Thorpe - Confer 2; Salisbury - Cardenas 2, Gunning 1.

Records: Jim Thorpe (3-11; 3-9); Salisbury (4-12; 3-9).