| Salisbury fans celebrated the team's upset victory Tuesday night. |
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UW-River Falls' Brian Kimble lofts a shot over a St.
Thomas defender for two of his seven points. |
Playing its first game of the season, No. 1 Virginia Wesleyan fell behind Salisbury and couldn't come all the way back. The Sea Gulls upset the top ranked Marlins 68-65 to improve to 4-0.
Coming off three victories in the weekend Provident Pride of Maryland Tournament, Salisbury hosted Virginia Wesleyan for the Marlins' season opener. The Sea Gulls seized control early and fended off a couple Virginia Wesleyan rallies to preserve a 32-26 halftime lead. Salisbury built the lead as high as 12 points midway through the second half when the Marlins started to chip away. Virginia Wesleyan got as close as 66-65 with 13 seconds left. But Tim Harwood hit two free throws to push Salisbury's lead back to three and Ali Brown missed a potential game tying shot at the buzzer.
The Marlins outrebounded the Sea Gulls 38-22 but turned the ball over 24 times. Salisbury made 28 free throws in 35 attempts (68 percent) compared to Virginia Wesleyan's nine makes in 19 attempts (47 percent). Mike Atkins led Salisbury with 15 points.
UW-River Falls took the lead for good with 4:20 to go in the first half and went on a 16-6 run early in the second half to pull away as the No. 21 Falcons knocked off No. 8 St. Thomas 79-64. The Tommies, who lost four starters and their head coach from last year's national title team, picked up their first loss of the season. River Falls shot 31-for-52 from the floor, including 10-for-11 shooting from senior forward Shane Manor en route to a game-high 22 points.
Shane Manor talked with D3sports.com after the game. See the video at the bottom of this page.
Virginia Wesleyan and St. Thomas weren't the only ranked teams to fall. Nazareth hit 10 three pointers in the first half and No. 7 Rochester never recovered in the Golden Flyers' 82-64 victory. Jason Corletta scored 24 points to lead Nazareth, which improves to 3-1. Transylvania dumped No. 20 Centre 74-62 behind a career-best 28 points for Brandon Rash.
Four of Methodist's starters scored double-digits and the Monarchs picked up their first win of the season, 81-79 over No. 23 Hampden-Sydney. No. 24 UW-Stevens Point saw a 14-point halftime lead turn into a 60-55 loss to St. John's. The Johnnies rallied for the victory as the Pointers went 2-for-17 (12 percent) in the second half.
Outside the Top 25, it's not too soon to start conference play. William Paterson scored 40 points in the paint to beat TCNJ 75-69 in both teams' NJAC opener. In the Centennial Conference Gettysburg stopped Muhlenberg 72-68, despite Spencer Liddic's 20 points and 15 rebounds. Lancaster Bible's first conference game in the NEAC was a loss. The Chargers fell to Penn State-Harrisburg 85-72. Marywood edged Immaculata 72-69 in overtime of the teams' CSAC opener.