Roanoke, Va.- Salem traveled to Roanoke, Va. to face the Roanoke College Maroons in a non-conference game Sunday afternoon.  In a hard-fought battle, the Spirits dropped a closely competitive matchup 52-63.

After overcoming a sluggish first period of play, the Spirits had a strong shooting performance in the 2nd period going 40% from the field compared to the Maroons 31%. From then, the Spirits played the Maroons even (43-43) the rest of the way, even outscoring the opponent 14-9 in the fourth period.

Guards Chaniece Moss (11) and Makalla Burnette (11) led the team by scoring in double figures. Moss also led the defensive attack by swiping 5 steals on the day.

Coach Mohney, "Our number one goal going into this contest was to compete; and we did that for three of the four periods.  After a rough first period we started to get in to a flow.  I saw more team basketball in this game than I have in our past games.  We were battling for the remainder of the game cutting a 20 point deficit to 9 points, but going 7-19 from the free throw did not help our case.  I knew going into our season that our schedule was not going to be easy, but that is making us stronger and better with each game.  We are getting in to a flow, right in time for conference to kick back off when we return from break at the end of the month."

The Spirits will take the next few weeks off to enjoy the Holiday Break, and will return to action on January 2, 2019 as they face Averett University on the road. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:00 pm.