BALTIMORE, MD – Visiting Salisbury used a 15-3 run midway through the second half to take control of the game and went on to defeat Johns Hopkins, 68-58, in the opening game of the Mike Durgala Memorial Tournament. The Blue Jays open the season with a loss while the Sea Gulls open with the win. Junior Ciara McCullagh led the Blue Jays with 17 points and eight rebounds.

McCullagh hit a bucket in the paint at 14:03 to put Hopkins back on top 41-40 but Anna Hackett answered with a jumper for the Sea Gulls. On the ensuing Blue Jays' possession, senior Fatu Conteh hit one of two free throws and the game was tied for the fifth time. That didn't last long as Julia McLaughlin converted a layup to give Salisbury a 44-42 lead. Her bucket kick-started an 11-2 run by the visitors as they took their biggest lead of the game at 55-44 with 8:47 to play. Melanie Mocniak punctuated the run with a three-pointer.

Junior Stacy Fairey answered with a layup after grabbing an offensive board and Hackett then hit one of two from the line to make it a 10-point game. Conteh came right back with a pair of her own from the charity stripe and that ignited a quick 8-2 burst as Hopkins cut the deficit to just four with 2:40 to go in the game. Salisbury answered with back-to-back baskets from Hackett and the lead was back to eight. McCullagh and junior Haley Bush sandwiched baskets around a three-pointer from Courtney McManus and the Blue Jays trailed by seven with 41 ticks on the clock. Hopkins could get no closer as Hackett sealed it at the line with three of four free throws.

Salisbury came out firing to start the game, taking a quick 7-1 lead as Hackett and Sarah Seipp combined for all seven Sea Gull points. The Gulls pushed their lead to 9-3 before the Blue Jays got going on a McCullagh layup at the 17:22-mark that ignited a 17-3 run and saw JHU take a 20-12 lead. McCullagh and sophomore Katie Clark fueled the run with 15 of the Jays' 17 points. Clark capped the run with a steal and a fast-break layup at the 12:07-mark.

The Gulls got back into the game with 10 unanswered points and tied the game with 7:33 to play in the half on a Seipp three-pointer. Seipp did a lot of the damage herself during the run, scoring seven of the Gulls' points. The teams traded buckets before Hopkins reeled off a 12-1 run that saw the Blue Jays take a 35-25 lead with just 1:09 on the clock. Salisbury had the final say of the half with a Mocniak layup to make it a 35-27 game at the break.

The second half started much the same as the first, with Salisbury coming out strong. The Sea Gulls opened with an 11-0 burst fueled by three-pointers from Hackett and McManus and capped by a McLaughlin fast-break layup at 16:20 to stake the Gulls to a 38-35 lead. The teams went back-and-forth over the ensuing two minutes and Hopkins took what turned out to be its last lead of the game at 41-40 with 14:03 to play.

McCullagh's team-best 17 points are a career-high as she went 7-of-9 from the field and 3-of-4 from the charity stripe. Clark was the only other Blue Jay in double figures with a career-high 11 points and added two assists and three steals. Hackett led all scorers with 27 points, while also handing out three assists and swiping seven steals. Seipp also finished in double figures with 13 points to go with three assists and five steals.

Hopkins will now play Washington & Jefferson in the consolation game of the Mike Durgala Memorial Tournament at 1:00 pm on Sunday, November 17. Washington & Jefferson fell, 84-70, to Illinois Wesleyan in the day's second game. Salisbury and Illinois Wesleyan will face off in the championship game at 3:00 pm on Sunday.