BALTIMORE, Md. – The Salisbury University men's basketball team took home the title of best Division III team in the state of Maryland, claiming the 2011 Pride of Maryland championship Saturday night with a 60-49 victory at Johns Hopkins University.

The Pride of Maryland title is the first for the Sea Gulls in the event's seven seasons in existence.

Salisbury (3-0) opened the game on a 9-0 run, not allowing Hopkins to score until seven minutes into the contest. Four different Sea Gulls scored during the opening stretch, a balanced theme that would continue throughout the night as six different players scored at least six points for Salisbury, but none had more than senior Mike Maczko, who put home 12 points to lead the attack.

Maczko also had seven rebounds and was named to the all-tournament team. Senior Mike Atkins was also named to the all-tournament team while classmate Devin Posey dished out 14 assists in the three games of the event and averaged 7.3 rebounds to be named tournament MVP. Posey pulled down 10 rebounds on Saturday while scoring six points.

The Salisbury lead remained nearly double figures through the remainder of the first half as Salisbury took a 25-17 lead into halftime.

An 11-3 Johns Hopkins run to open the second half tied the game at 28-28. The game would be tied at 30-30 a few minutes later before junior Elijah Gore buried a three-pointer to give Salisbury the lead it would not relinquish. Hopkins (2-1) never led in the game.

Gore would finish with 10 points on the night as his bucket sparked a 13-4 run to put the Gulls up by nine with less than eight minutes to play and the lead would remain at least five the rest of the way.

Salisbury dominated on the glass in the game, pulling down 40 rebounds (14 on the offensive end) to just 18 for the Blue Jays.

The Sea Gulls return home on Tuesday, Nov. 22, when they will host No. 1 Virginia Wesleyan College. The game is scheduled to tip off at 8 p.m.