VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - The Salisbury University men's basketball team suffered its second loss in a row Wednesday evening on the road against defending national champion and top-ranked Virginia Wesleyan College, 73-64, before 745 at The Batten Center.

The game saw 15 lead changes as VWC (2-1) went up 47-45 in the second half and managed to fight off SU (4-2) for the remainder of the game. The Marlins got their edge over the Sea Gulls in points off turnovers (20-12) and second chance points (20-7).

SU was lead once again by senior backcourt tandem of Ray Williams and Segun Odumeru who contributed 27 points and 11 points, respectively. Williams' game high point total helped him become the 27th member of the Salisbury 1,000 point club as he has totaled 1,004 career points.

Forward Frank Gerald corralled a team high seven rebounds and also added nine points in the loss.

The Gulls never led by more than five points in the game and went into halftime with a 32-31 advantage. Salisbury, despite shooting better then 53 percent from the field, could not hold off a Virginia Wesleyan team who was upset in its last meeting with SU last season, 66-62.

VWC was led by All-American Brandon Adair who dropped 25 points, nine rebounds and two assists. Djaun Tucker added 14 points off the bench for the Marlins, who lost their first game in 30 consecutive tries to Averett, 81-73, on Monday.

Salisbury will return to the Maggs Center at 4 p.m., Saturday, December 2, as the Sea Gulls open up their Capital Athletic Conference schedule with York College (Pa.).