VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – The Salisbury University women's basketball team picked up right where they left off last February, thrashing the Virginia Wesleyan Marlins, 80-54, in the team's season opener on Wednesday night at TowneBank Arena.

BOX SCORE

HOW IT HAPPENED

• After Kaylee Otlowski gave the Sea Gulls their first points on a layup 12 seconds in, SU fell behind 6-2 on a pair of Marlin three-pointers. Emily Dilger then hit two free throws and soon Otlowski knocked down another jump shot. On the next possession Kylie Webb stole the ball and set up a Jada Welbon jumper to tie it at 8-8 at the 6:35 mark of the first quarter.
• Otlowski gave the Sea Gulls the lead back with a jumper at the 5:15 mark to make it 10-8, followed by a Lauren Fortescue layup to extend the lead to two possessions. Salisbury started expanding the gap in the final 2:36 of the opening period; up 14-12, Otlowski drained another bucket and Ashlynn Burrows cashed in on a turnover to make it 18-12.
• Hailey Ader and Abby Wilkinson soon connected on back-to-back jumpers to make it an 8-0 run and a 22-12 lead before VWU's Jada Norman stopped the bleeding with a three-pointer, cutting the Marlin deficit to 22-15 at the end of the first.
• The Marlins got as close as 24-19 on an Imani Felton jumper at the 8:39 mark of the second quarter, but Fortescue answered with a layup to get it back to 26-19, and the Sea Gulls would never lead by fewer than three possessions the rest of the way. Fortescue's layup kickstarted an eight-point push that featured a Welbon jumper and a layup and two free throws from Otlowski to make it 32-19 with 6:01 to go in the half.
• Felton answered for VWU with five straight points to whittle it down to 32-24, but Salisbury closed the first half on a 9-4 spurt, capped by a Webb trey and Burrows jay to get the Sea Gull margin to 41-28 at the break.
• Otlowski and Fortescue grabbed the spotlight together coming out of halftime, draining two buckets apiece in the first four minutes of the third quarter to extend the Salisbury lead to 49-32.
• The Marlins answered with an 8-2 run to get it back down to 51-40, but Otlowski converted a three-point play on the next possession, sparking a 10-2 Salisbury push to end the third. Fortescue's layup in the dying seconds of the quarter built the SU cushion to 61-42.
• Wilkinson opened the fourth quarter with a jumper to make it a three-touchdown margin at 63-42. Salisbury would go up by 20-plus to stay at the 5:07 mark as a Sym Deloatch free throw made it 69-49.
• Tori Rumbaugh scored the next five Sea Gull points and netted seven of SU's final 11 points on the day, knocking down a pair of free throws to get Salisbury over the 80-point hill.

SALISBURY GAME NOTES

• Kaylee Otlowski, who has averaged a double-double in each of the past two seasons, recorded the 22nd of her career to open her final season. The 2020-21 WBCA First-Team All-American set a new career scoring high with 29 points, shooting 13-of-21 from the floor, and hauled in 11 rebounds, including seven on the offensive glass.
• Lauren Fortescue notched 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting, plus four rebounds and a pair of assists.
• Tori Rumbaugh scored seven points in nine minutes off the bench in her collegiate debut, going a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line. Ashlynn Burrows added six bench points of her own in 13 minutes.
• Emily Dilger clocked a well-rounded stat line, scoring four points but yanking down seven rebounds to go along with four steals, three assists and two blocks.
• Salisbury shot 41.3 percent (33-of-80) from the floor and went an impressive 12-of-14 (85.7 percent) from the charity stripe, the team's first time eclipsing 80 percent from the free throw line since knocking down 19-of-23 (82.6 percent) on Feb. 1, 2020, at St. Mary's (Md.).
• The Sea Gulls outrebounded VWU 43-33, including 20 offensive rebounds to the Marlins' nine.
• Salisbury proved to be a menace on the defensive end, forcing 30 Marlin giveaways – including 15 steals – for a turnover margin of plus-18. SU averaged 13.4 more turnovers than its opponents in 2020-21.

VIRGINIA WESLEYAN GAME NOTES

• Imani Felton led the scoring line for the Marlins with 14 points (5-of-13).
• Celeste Rucker chipped in 11 points of her own, and Jada Norman added eight points off the bench.
• Adaje Williams hauled in a game-high 15 rebounds, including six on the offensive end.
• The Marlins shot 36.7 percent (18-of-49) from the floor and made seven three-pointers on 17 attempts (41.2 percent).

UP NEXT

• The Sea Gulls now head north to Gwynedd Valley, Pa., for a weekend tournament hosted by Gwynedd Mercy University.
• Salisbury will do battle with fifth-ranked Messiah on Friday night at 8 p.m. Depending on the result of the Friday game, the Sea Gulls will face either Gwynedd Mercy or PSU- Lehigh Valley on Saturday at noon or 2 p.m.