SALISBURY, MD – The York College men's basketball team continued their struggles against Salisbury University as the Green and White dropped a 78-71 Capital Athletic Conference decision at the Maggs Center on Wednesday night. The Spartans have dropped four straight against the Sea Gulls and have not defeated the maroon and gold since an 84-74 win on February 6, 2008 at Wolf Gymnasium.

With the loss, the Spartans fall to 12-3 overall and 4-2 in the CAC while the victorious Sea Gulls improve to 6-7 overall and 2-3 in the league.

The contest was back and forth all night and the first half reflected that with seven ties and eight lead changes. The Spartans biggest first half lead was three while the Gulls largest margin was four points on three different occasions. The Spartans held a two point lead just 11 seconds before the half but Drew Dickson converted a very rare four-point play with eight seconds left to give the Gulls the 36-34 edge at the break.

The Gulls capitalized on the momentum they took into the half as they started the second stanza by scoring 10 of the first 11 points of the half to take a game-high 11 point lead just 2:43 into the half. The Spartans battled and eventually pulled to within two at 54-52 on a pair of Kevin Whaley (Dover, Pa./Dover) free throws with 11:25 left. The Salisbury lead vacillated between two and six points over the next seven minutes until Greg Palmer canned back-to-back threes to put the lead up to 70-62 with 3:56 left. York cut the lead to five on a Jeremy Skoloda (Leola, Pa./Conestoga Valley) free throw with 1:42 left but York would get no closer as they suffered their second loss in their last three games.

Salisbury were led by their big three as Palmer, Chris McGrew and Devin Jones accounted for 56 of the 78 Salisbury points. Palmer had 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting including 3-for-3 from deep and 2-for-2 from the line. McGrew had 19 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots in his 24 minutes of action. Jones notched 18 points, six assists and two steals. Mike Maczko contributed nine points and nine boards to the Salisbury attack.

Whaley led the Spartans with 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting including four threes and two free throws. Skoloda added 13 points, as he was 5-for-8 from the floor, 2-for-3 from three and 1-for-2 from the stripe. Senior Nick Brady (Hanover, Pa./Delone Catholic) added 12 points and six rebounds while sophomore Paul Kouvaris (Baltimore, Md./Cardinal Gibbons) recorded a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Senior Jeremy Keefer (Palmyra, Pa./Palmyra) was the final Spartan in double figures with 11 points while he also had four rebounds and four assists.

Salisbury shot the ball well in the win as they converted 49.2% of their attempts from the field. The Spartans shot 44.8% from the floor including a cool 42.9% in the second half. Salisbury drained 7-of-21 from three while York was 6-for-16 from distance. The Sea Gulls were a crisp 13-of-14 from the free throw line while York went just 13-for-20 from the line.

Salisbury outrebounded the Spartans 36-29 which helped lead to a 15-8 margin in second chance points.

The Spartans return home for the first time in just under two weeks on Saturday night, as they will host Stevenson University in a CAC contest. Game time at Charles Wolf Gymnasium is set for 7:00 pm.

Kevin Whaley photo courtesy of Zach Clabaugh (www.sharpedgephoto.smugmug.com/)