BALTIMORE – The Salisbury University women's basketball team suffered its first loss of the 2010-11 season on Saturday afternoon, falling to Averett University, 65-50, on the opening day of the Mike Durgala Memorial Tournament hosted by Johns Hopkins University.

Salisbury fell into a hole early, trailing 16-2 just six minutes into the game, but the Gulls would battle back. Over the next 10 minutes the Sea Gulls (1-1) put together a 23-9 run, capped by senior Chante' McKinney's lay-up with 6:11 to play in the first half, tying the contest 25-25.

The bucket marked two of McKinney's seven points in the game. Junior Meghan Dunn played a big part in Salisbury's run, scoring all eight of her points during the stretch.

Averett (2-0) put together a run of its own after that, stretching the lead to 40-28 at the half, thanks to a 15-3 run, and the lead never got under the 12 points in the second half. The Cougars shot 45.8 percent from the floor in the game compared to 28.3 percent for the Sea Gulls.

Junior guard Glen Charlton led the way for Salisbury, scoring a game-high 21 points, while sophomore Katie McGahagan pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.

Averett's Ashley Washington led three Cougar scorers in double-figures with 18 points.

The Sea Gulls will be back in action Sunday afternoon, when they take on the host, Johns Hopkins. Game time is scheduled for 3 p.m.