Salisbury’s men’s basketball team hosted Yeshiva University in its home opener and fourth regular season contest. The Sea Gulls fell 79-71, moving to 2-2 on the season.
Head coach Maurice Williams believed his team was locked in and ready for the contest.
“They are a good team and a good program, but our preparation is always going to be elite no matter who we are playing against,” Williams said. “We will always lock in and make sure we put our guys into positions to where they will be successful.”
Salisbury started slow and fell behind early, with Yeshiva stretching out a 10-2 run. Williams made the decision to replace all five of his starters during the run, and the bench then led the Sea Gulls back into the game.
This bench unit was led by freshman guard D’Angelo Tull. Tull said he was able to do whatever the team needed to get it back into the game early.
“I try to bring everything, whether it is offense or defense and just doing the little things to get us buckets,” Tull said.
Tull did bring everything the Gulls needed not only for the early run, but for the entire game.
While his night on the stat sheet was underwhelming, Tull was diving after loose balls, taking charges and facilitating the offense late in the contest.
Tull ended the game with four points, two rebounds, a steal, a block and a team-high four assists.
Salisbury would keep the game close for much of the first half before falling behind by 11 points with five minutes remaining in the first half.
Senior Lucas Martin was subbed back into the game and helped close the Sea Gull deficit. Martin would score six of his 14 points to go along with a steal and two blocks before halftime to shrink the margin to just five, 38-33.
The second half would begin with a scoring spurt by junior Gary Briddell. Briddell would make two threes and play stifling defense on the guards of Yeshiva to help Salisbury take a lead after halftime.
Briddell used his energy to help him perform and keep his team in the game.
“My biggest part is bringing energy every single night on the defensive end and as much as I can on offense,” Briddell said. “My biggest role is to keep on attacking on defense.”
Briddell would end the game with 14 points, four rebounds and a steal.
Salisbury fell behind by as much as ten points late in the second half. Despite this, the Sea Gulls were able to pull within four points with just over a minute left in the game.
But this would be the closest that Salisbury would get to Yeshiva, losing with the final score of 79-71.
Williams was pleased with the outcome of the game, but said there were many plays that the team left out on the court.
“There were plays in the game that I wish we would have made, but one thing about this program is that we fight, and that is what we are going to always be,” Williams said.
Salisbury will look to right the ship in its next home matchup against Marymount University on Wednesday.
“We are unhappy about some of the plays that we didn’t make, but I know our guys really want to prepare and get ready for the next one,” Williams said.
By COREY YOUNG
Staff writer
Featured photo: Emma Reider image.
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