Center Valley, PA (February 26, 2009) – Just one more win. That is the mantra at DeSales University right now as the DeSales University men's and women's basketball team will each be looking for just one more win on Saturday afternoon as the men's basketball team is in search of repeating as Freedom Conference champions and the women's basketball team will be looking to three-peat as champions and earn that coveted automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament next week.
The two teams took much different paths to this point. The men's team earned the #1 seed posting a 20-5 overall record and a 13-1 mark in the Freedom Conference, setting a new team record for most conference wins in the regular season. The women's team started the season 5-8 and just 1-3 in the Freedom Conference, but finished the year 11-1 over its final 12 games and with a perfect 10-0 mark in those 12 games in Freedom Conference action to earn the #2 seed and will enter Saturday's game having won 11-straight games.
The men defeated #4 King's College, 82-69, on Wednesday night to advance to the title game squaring off with the #3 seed Misericordia University, who proved they can win on the road, upsetting the #2 seed Eastern University in convincing fashion, 80-65, also on Wednesday. The Cougars are making their first-ever appearance in the Freedom Conference playoffs after just joining the conference at the start of the 2008-09 season. DSU is making its ninth trip to the Freedom Conference playoffs. The Bulldogs own a 7-7 record in Freedom post-season including six trips to the Freedom Conference championship game, five of which have come in the last six years including today's appearance, and one Freedom Conference Championship which came last year starting the Bulldogs run to the NCAA “Elite Eight”.
The women defeated the #3 seed Delaware Valley College, 75-51, on Wednesday to earn its spot in the Freedom title game. If they are to win its third straight championship, this one will have to come on enemy hardwood as the Bulldogs travel to the top seed, Manhattanville College, on Saturday for the championship game. This game is a rematch of last year's championship game won by the Bulldogs in Billera Hall. The Valiants joined the Freedom Conference at the start of the 2007-08 season and are making their second appearance in the Freedom playoffs in three years, posting a 2-1 record in the Freedom post-season. The DeSales women are making their 13th straight appearance in the Freedom Conference playoffs since joining the conference 13 years ago. The Bulldogs have a 15-8 overall record, have advanced to nine Freedom Conference championships (including Saturday's), and cut a championship net down four times ('97-98, '99-00, '07-08, and '08-09).
The women's game at Manhattanville begins at 1:00 pm. For those unable to attend the game you can follow the game's progress online via LIVE Stats or LIVE Video. The live video feed does have a charge of $6.95 to watch. The men's game begins at 3:00 pm in Billera Hall. For those unable to attend that game you can follow online via LIVE Stats, LIVE Audio. Ticket prices for the game are $6.00 (adults), $4.00 (seniors 65+), $2.00 (students – DeSales students with ID are free), children under the age of six are free.
Leading the Bulldog women will be junior Lori Lidlow (Toms River, NJ/Toms River North), who leads the team in scoring at 17.9 points per game. Lidlow also leads the team with 64 steals and had a team-high 21 points in the semifinal win over Delaware Valley on Wednesday.
Senior Kelly Magrann (Sinking Spring, PA/Holy Name) is second on the team in scoring averaging 10.7 points per game. Magrann has been on fire and a huge part of the Bulldogs success over the last 12 games averaging 15.2 points per game in that time. Freshman Colleen Gavin (Quakertown, PA/Quakertown) and sophomore Cherelle Simmons (Lancaster, PA/JP McCaskey) combine to average 16.7 points and 15.0 rebounds per game in the middle, while sophomore Hannah Smith (New Cumberland, PA/Cedar Cliff) continues to excel at the point, averaging 5.1 assists per game and ranked third in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.54-to-1).
Manhattanville is led by its guard combo of Simona Gordon and Courtney Turner. Gordon leads the team in scoring at 13.8 points per game, while Turner also averages double digits at 11.2 per game. Carol Ortiz is the top inside player averaging 7.0 points per game and Carey Hickey runs the point and has a team-high 130 assists on the year.
The DeSales men are led by its senior All-American Darnell Braswell (Allentown, PA/William Allen). Braswell leads the team in both scoring (20.7 PPG) and rebounding (8.2 RPG) and has recorded nine double-doubles this season. He became the school's all-time leading scorer with 19 points in the win over FDU-Florham last Saturday and also broke the school-record for points in a game in the triple overtime win over King's earlier in the season with 41 tallies.
Junior Brian Hunter (Allentown, PA/Emmaus) also averages double digits at 10.8 points per game and has a team-high 100 assists and just 50 turnovers (2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio). Senior Rob Schubach (Center Valley, PA/Southern Lehigh) and sophomore Bob Zanneo (Philadelphia, PA/Father Judge) combine to average 14.9 points off the bench and have combined to make 97 three's on the season. As a team, DSU has more assists (422) than turnovers (352) and are out-rebounding the opposition by an average of 7.3 rebounds per game.
Misericordia has four players averaging double digits entering Saturday's game. Dom Del Prete leads the way at 16.9 points per game. Jeff Slanovec is averaging 12.1 points per game and has a team-high 70 made three-pointers, Ethan Eichhorst is averaging 10.8 per game, and Robbie Johnson is also averaging double digits at 10.7 per game. Mark Williams is tops on the glass pulling down 6.0 rebounds per game and senior Andre Little has a team-high 106 assists.
