GWYNEDD VALLEY, Pa. – Salisbury outscored Albright 19-6 in the fourth quarter to pull away and the Lions (0-3) fell to the Sea Gulls (2-0) by a score of 69-48 in the opening round of the Gwynedd Mercy Tip-Off Tournament on Friday night.
Salisbury started the fourth quarter on a 10-2 run capped by a layup from Lauren Fortescue that made it a 61-44 game with 6:01 to play and Albright was unable to get closer than 15 the rest of the way.
The Lions featured a balanced scoring effort as four players recorded six plus points on the night. Freshman guard
Shaunna Bruker paced head coach
Janice Luck's squad with 11 points, while juniors
Hailey Dayton and
Zaria Mohamed added eight points apiece and sophomore guard
Alli Marcus chipped in six points of her own. Mohamed also collected a game-high 11 rebounds.
Jada Welbon paced Salisbury with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting (3-of-3 from three), Courtney Brigham added 10 points and Kaylyn French came through with eight.
The Sea Gulls raced out to an early 7-2 lead, but Albright quickly responded with a 14-6 run that featured six points apiece from Marcus and Mohamed as the Lions took a 16-13 lead and a late Salisbury bucket cut the lead back to a point. Salisbury outscored the Lions by a 17-6 margin in the second quarter helped in large part by a late 7-0 spurt capped by a Brigham layup at the buzzer that gave the Sea Gulls a 32-22 lead heading into the locker room.
A layup from Bruker at the 3:28 mark of the third quarter brought Albright within seven at 42-35, but Megan Konig quickly responded with a three-point play on the other end to stretch the Salisbury lead back to double digits. The Sea Gulls held a 50-42 edge at the end of three quarters before starting the final stanza on the afore-mentioned 10-2 run.
Albright shot 20-of-53 (37.7%) from the field and was 0-of-2 from beyond the arc, while Salisbury was 24-of-57 (42.1%) and 6-of-10 (60%) from three. The two teams were even on the boards at 34 apiece as Mohamed (11) and freshman
Gabby Boggs (10) both recorded double-digit rebounds for the Lions.
The Lions will be back in action with the consolation game of the tournament tomorrow afternoon at 12 p.m. against Keystone.
