The Virginia Wesleyan University men's basketball team (2-0) opened the Townebank Tip-Off Tournament with a 68-56 win over Salisbury.

The Marlins' defense was key, as they forced 18 turnovers that led to 20 points compared to the Seagulls' seven, and VWU also recorded 32 points in the paint compared to Salisbury's 26. 

VWU started strong jumping out to an 8-0 lead early in the game, but the Seagulls stormed back to cut the lead to 12-11 at 11:44. Several minutes later, the Marlins held a 16-15 lead, then, the Virginia Wesleyan went on a 11-2 run to take a 27-17 lead over the visitors.

The Seagulls responded with an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 27-25 with 4:15 left in the half. VWU outscored Salisbury 5-2 to lead 32-26, but the Seagulls went on a 5-2 run to cut the lead to 34-31. The Marlins ended the half with a 38-33 lead. 

A tightly contested start to the second half as buckets were hard to come by, however, the Marlins found themselves with a 46-43 lead at the 13:35 mark. Then, VWU went on a 4-0 run with a three from Wallace.

Salisbury came back and cut the lead down to 54-51, but the Marlins responded with a 12-2 run that gave Virginia Wesleyan a commending 66-53 lead. VWU went on to win 68-56.  

Waylo Wilson led the offense scoring 18 points, shooting 9-for-12 from the field, and had four rebounds, four steals, one block, and two assists, Eric Rowland tallied 16 points shooting 6-for-11 from the field, and 3-for-6 from beyond the arc, and three rebounds, and Miles Wallace registered 13 points shooting 5-for-7 from the field, and 3-for-4 from three-point territory, grabbing two rebounds, two assists, and one steal.