WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Gallaudet University women's basketball team survived a ferocious Salisbury University squad that nearly grabbed a victory away from them on Wednesday evening. The Bison can breathe a sigh of relief as they hung onto defeat the Sea Gulls, 69-68, before a crowd of 175 at the Field House to extend the program's winning streak to five games.

Gallaudet (7-3, 3-1 CAC) held a 16-point lead with 13 minutes left in regulation before the Sea Gulls (5-5, 2-1 CAC) went on a 16-5 run, in three minutes, to cut the lead to five, 58-53. The Bison lead remained in single digits before Salisbury took a 68-67 lead on a KC Curran (19 points) three-pointer with 1:21 left. GU junior Nukeitra Hayes (Anderson, Ind.) ended the 7-0 SU run with the eventual game-winning jumper with 33 seconds left on the clock.

The Bison are on quite a tear since the season tipped off back on November 15. GU dropped its first two games of the season and since has accumulated a 7-1 record as the Bison have set several new program marks in the process.

The current Gallaudet winning streak is the longest since the 1998-99 team won six straight before it lost the Capital Athletic Conference championship to St. Mary's (Md.) College, 75-69. Earlier that season, Gallaudet won a program best 15 in a row.

The win is the first against Salisbury University since January 31, 2000, to snap a 22-game losing streak to the Gulls. SU began the streak in the 2000 CAC tournament semifinals when the Sea Gulls upset the Bison, 72-56, after GU swept the two-game regular-season series.

Gallaudet (7-3, 3-1 CAC) is now 6-1 at the Field House this season and the seven victories are the most since 2000-01 when the Bison finished with a 7-18 mark. The three conference wins, all in a row, are the most since the Bison finished second with a 9-5 mark in 1999-2000. The previous four seasons the Bison have been winless in CAC play. The current overall and conference records are the best for Coach Kevin Cook, now in his third season at the helm.

The game pitted two of the top three scoring teams in the CAC behind nationally ranked Marymount (Va.) University. Gallaudet junior Easter Faafiti (Pittsburg, Calif.), the leading scorer in the conference, increased her points per game average as she scored a team-high 23 points to go with six rebounds, four steals and two assists. Salisbury senior forward Kylie Hall (14 points), the CAC leading rebounder was held below her average of 12.3 per game, as the Bison only allowed Hall to rip down seven rebounds, six on the defensive end of the court.

GU had four players reach double figures in points led by Faafiti, Hayes (16 points) along with senior Brittainy Payne (Pine Hill, N.J.) and freshman Shaquana McDonough (Pembroke, Mass.), who netted 11 and 10 points, respectively. Hayes and McDonough had a team-high eight rebounds while Payne grabbed seven and made a team-high five assists.

The Bison finished the game with a season best 50.9 percent shooting from the field (27-for-53) and shot 60 percent from the free-throw line (15-for-25). Salisbury was held to a 41.8 shooting percentage (28-for-67) from the field as the Sea Gulls shot 35.7 percent (5-for-14) from three-point range. GU outrebounded Salisbury by five, 39-34, and scored 46 of its 69 points in the paint.

Gallaudet will look to extend its winning streaks on Saturday, January 9, when the Bison travel south to Fredericksburg, Va., to face University of Mary Washington (7-3, 3-0 CAC) at 1 p.m.