BALTIMORE- The Salisbury University men's basketball team finished in fourth place in the Provident Pride of Maryland Tournament after the Sea Gulls dropped a pair of games this past weekend to McDaniel College and St. Mary's (Md.) College at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

The maroon and gold won its opening game in the tournament with a 71-69 overtime win over Goucher at home but fell to eventual champion McDaniel, 65-49, and St. Mary's (Md.), 94-81, in the third place game.

Salisbury (2-3) outscored the Green Terror 36-31 in the second half but it wasn't enough to overcome a 21-point halftime deficit. Senior Jonas Vaitkus scored a team-high 11 points while junior Brandon Abney added 10 points in the Saturday afternoon loss.

As a team SU shot 2-of-9 from three-point range and McDaniel was able to turn Salisbury's 23 turnovers into 26 points.

In Sunday's third place game senior Gary Ward scored a game-high 33 points on 11-of-17 shooting (6-of-11 from three-point range) and pulled down a game-high eight rebounds to lead the Sea Gulls. Sophomore Greg Palmer scored 19 points as the maroon and gold shot 45 percent from the field as a team.

Salisbury trailed by as many as 14 in the first half but tied the score at 64-64 at the 11:44 mark of the second half. The Sea Gulls were outscored 30-17 over the remainder of the game as the Seahawks went on for the 13-point win.

Ward was named to the all-tournament team as he finished the Provident Pride of Maryland Tournament with a 16.6 points per game average.

The Sea Gulls return to action on Wednesday, November 28, as they travel Fredericksburg, Va., to open up Capital Athletic Conference play against University of Mary Washington. The game is set for an 8 p.m. tip-off.