TOWSON, Md. - The Salisbury University men's basketball team suffered its first defeat of the 2009-10 season, a nail-biting 78-76 loss against No. 20 St. Mary's (Md.) College Saturday night at the Pride of Maryland tournament hosted by Goucher College. With the loss, the Sea Gulls advance to the third-place game, scheduled for tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. against Johns Hopkins University. The Blue Jays fell to Hood College 65-62 earlier this evening, setting the tournament championship between St. Mary's and Hood. 

The Sea Gulls (1-1) took their final lead of the night with 3:57 left on the scoreboard following a layup by junior center Chris McGrew (Burtonsville, Md.) to give the Gulls a one point advantage at 73-72. St. Mary's (2-0) then hit a pair of free throw attempts to bring the score to 74-73 in favor the Seahawks. Following a St. Mary's foul, McGrew made one of two free throw shots to even things up at 74; it was the 11th time in the contest the two teams were tied. St. Mary's had a pair of made jumpers by Camontae Griffin to give them a four point lead with just 51 seconds left. The Sea Gulls would hit a pair of free throws to close the lead to 78-76 but would miss three shots over the last 11 seconds of the contest, including a last second three-point attempt by senior guard Devin Jones (Severn, Md.).

SU was led by senior guard Greg Palmer (Salisbury, Md.), who scored a team-high 17 points; he also pulled down four rebounds, dished out two assists and had one steal in 33 minutes of action. McGrew was second in scoring with 15 points, and grabbed nine rebounds for the Gulls. Sophomore forward Mike Maczko (Bel Air, Md.) continues to impress as he also brought down nine rebounds, including six offensive rebounds. The Bel Air, Md., native was the final Sea Gull to reach double-digit point totals, as he scored 14 points. Senior guard Ronald Mann (Ellicott City, Md.) played a team-high 37 minutes and scored eight points.

The Sea Hawks had four players reach double-digit point totals, including Griffin, who finished with a team-high 15 points. Alex Franz played 39 minutes in the contest and was second in scoring with 14 points.

For the game, the Sea Gulls shot 29-62 (46.8%) from the floor, including 3-10 (30.0%) from behind the three-point line. The Sea Gulls outrebounded the Seahawks 40-35 and had four blocks compared to just two for St. Mary's.

The Sea Gulls will look to get back above .500, as they square off with the Blue Jays in the third-place game. The last time the two teams met was in last year's Pride of Maryland tournament on Nov. 29, with the Sea Gulls falling 54-47.