SALISBURY, Md. - Salisbury University men's basketball sophomore center Chris McGrew nailed two key free-throws with one tenth of a second left in Saturday's Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) game to give the Sea Gulls a 75-73 victory over Hood College at the Maggs Center in front of 350.

The Burtonsville, Md., native collected an offensive rebound with just a few seconds on the clock and went up for a offensive put-back when he was fouled by a Hood player. After several ensuing timeouts, McGrew (nine points) knocked down both free-throws. Hood's three-quarters court shot came up short as time expired.

With the victory, Salisbury (11-14, 8-8 CAC) locks up the fifth-seed in next week's CAC tournament and will travel to Arlington, Va., for a quarterfinal contest with Marymount (Va.) University on Tuesday, February 24 at 7 p.m. The Sea Gulls split the season series with the Saints with two close games. Salisbury won at Marymount on January 21 with a 63-61 victory. The maroon and gold came up on the short end this past Wednesday with 62-60 loss. Hood College (9-16, 6-10 CAC) fails to advance to the six-team CAC tournament.

Salisbury honored its four seniors Tim Brasel, Todd Dembroski, Sean Whittaker and injured guard Brandon Abney. Coach Steve Holmes gave the three seniors in uniform the start in the ballgame. The seniors did not disappoint as Brasel hit a three-pointer to start the game. Dembroski followed that up with a jumper of his own on an assist from Brasel. The games first several minutes would be back-and-forth as the two teams traded baskets continually. The Blazers jumped out to a 10-point lead with 5:06 left in the half. The Gulls worked feverously to trim the lead and managed to get the score within three, 35-32, on a Matt DeLizio tip-in just before the end of the half. The two teams each brought down 18 rebounds in the first half.

The Sea Gulls and Blazers started the second half trading baskets including several lead changes. Hood finally found its rhythm as the Blazers were able to build leads of six points three times. Each time Salisbury was able to close the lead. With 3:22 left the Blazers held a lead of eight and seemed to have taken the wind out of the Gulls. Junior guard Ronald Mann (10 points) hit a huge three-pointer off an assist from junior Devin Jones (26 points, six rebounds). The Blazers hit one of two free throws to put the score at 73-67 with 2:52 left on the clock. That would be the last point Hood would score the rest of the game.

Jones marched down the court and hit a quick jumper of his own. The Gulls forced another missed shot and Mann brought down the rebound. Whittaker (seven points, seven rebounds) put up a three-point attempt of his own that wouldn't go down, he muscled his way into the fray for an offensive rebound and hit a jumper to put Salisbury within two. Jones capped off the run with a jumper of his own to tie the game at 73-73 and brought the crowd to its feet. Hood worked the clock down to 34 seconds and fired up a jumper that missed as Jones grabbed the defensive rebound and the Gulls called a timeout. On the ensuing play, Jones fired off a three-point attempt that missed and McGrew pulled down the offensive rebound and got fouled going for the put-back. The sophomore's free throws capped off the 8-0 run and allowed the Gulls to celebrate their final home game of the season.

Salisbury junior guard Greg Palmer notched his second double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Hood College forward Tyler Snoots put up a valiant effort in the loss with 18 points. J'Air Brady and Chris Leggett finished with double-digits point totals with 12 and 10, respectively.