Box Score
Old Westbury, NY, (December 28, 2004) – Senior Michael Venafra (Belmont Hills, PA/Lower Merion) scored 26 points, including the 1,000th of his career, leading the DeSales University men’s basketball team past Richard Stockton College in the first round of the SUNY-Old Westbury Tournament on Tuesday evening.
The Bulldogs (6-2 overall) advance to the championship game of the tournament facing the other first round winner, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, on Wednesday evening at 7:30 pm.
Venafra becomes the 18th player in school history to score 1,000 career points. He entered the game leading the team in scoring at 17.6 points per game and has scored 20+ points in each of the last two games. Venafra scored his game-high 26 tallies on 10-of-14 shooting, 6-of-9 from beyond the three-point arc.
DeSales took control of the game early as they jumped out to a 50-29 halftime lead and never looked back. The Ospreys did manage to cut the deficit to 14 points, 52-38, with 16:25 left in the second half but a quick 7-0 run by the Bulldogs pushed the lead back up to 21 points and Stockton never threatened again.
Joining Venafra in double digits were seniors Kyle Koch (Lehighton, PA/Lehighton) and David Spadt (Emmaus, PA/Emmaus) with 12 points apiece and freshman Phil Stricker (Womelsdorf, PA/Conrad Weiser) added 10 points in the win.
Richard Stockton (4-4 overall) was led by Brian Hiltner with 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting and Tobias Smith with 10 points and five assists.
