Salisbury and Palmerton earned a split during the regular season so it was anybody's guess what would happen when the two teams met in the wild card round of the revamped Colonial League playoffs on Saturday.

The Falcons entered the contest with 6-3 senior center and leading scorer Meagan Eripret on the bench and unable to give it a go thanks to a low ankle sprain she sustained in just two nights earlier in a loss to Southern Lehigh.The Lady Bombers took advantage of Eripret's absence and grabbed a 63-50 victory.The win lifted Palmerton into the playoff semifinals against No. 2 seed Notre Dame of Green Pond on Tuesday night at Catasauqua (6 p.m.). Northwestern Lehigh will take on No. 1 seed Southern Lehigh in the nightcap at 7:30 p.m.Palmerton jumped out to a 14-2 lead in the first five minutes with four of their field goals coming from beyond the arc (two each from Linnaea Leister and Madison Mummey). They took a 10-point lead into the second quarter and an 11-point advantage at intermission.The Falcons could have easily packed it in, but junior guard Lindsay Bauer, senior Kelly Gonoude and sophomore Caylin Meikrantz didn't want to hear that.Bauer scored 13 of her team high 18 points in the first half to keep the Falcons from getting blown out. Gonoude added 17 points and Meikrantz, who had just one three-pointer in varsity action all season, hit three forming range for nine points."They (Salisbury) played very well," said Palmerton head coach Rodney Strohl. "Without Eripret the other girls stepped up. No. 20 (Meikrantz) made some three-point shots. That's the first time we saw her play on the varsity level."I've got to compliment them. They went hard to the hoop. Got is in some foul trouble in the first half and we didn't play very good defense tonight and that's not going to win games for us unless we play good on both ends. That includes rebounding the ball. We've got to do a better job on that end."With four minutes left in the third quarter, the Falcons were down by 15 points (46-31), but outscored the Lady Bombers 11-1 to enter the final eight minutes trailing just 47-42. Two treys by Gonoude and another by Meikrantz keyed the run.Gonoude drove the lane to pull Salisbury within three to start the final quarter, but the Lady Bombers got seven from Farquhar and four more from Abby Reimer to take a 58-47 lead with just under two minutes to play and the Falcons comeback ended.Farquhar, who didn't score in the first quarter, ended up with a game-high 21 points. Mummey added 17, Leister 12 and Reimer 11."I'm really proud how hard we played," said Sailsbury head coach Joe Mladosich. "Palmerton has a very good team and our kids played hard to the end and that's all that we could ask for."We've got a lot of heart, a lot of seniors and they want to continue to play. We'll get better and we'll get everybody back. We had one day to practice and prepare for this and they made the adjustments well. We made a lot of three's. Their effort was great."Palmerton still has sight on the Colonial League title, while the Falcons look ahead for the District 11 2A tournament. Don't be surprised if the two teams meet again down the road.SALISBURYKeet 1-1-2-4, Gonoude 6-2-3-17, Burkhardt 0-0-0-0, Szita 0-0-0-0, Meikrantz 3-0-0-9, Bauer 5-6-10-18, Bucchin 0-0-0-0, Utesch 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 16-9-15-50.PALMERTONMissal 0-0-0-0, Reimer 4-3-5-11, Mummey 5-3-4-17, Leister 4-1-2-12, Farquhar 7-7-7-21, Sterling 0-0-0-0, Beers 0-0-0-0, Nemeth 1-0-2-2. TOTALS: 21-14-20-63.Salisbury 9 19 14 8 - 50Palmerton 19 20 8 16 - 63Three-pointers: Salisbury - Gonoude 3, Meikrantz 3, Bauer 2, Gonoude 1; Palmerton - Mummey 4, Leister 3.