Center Valley, PA, (January 7, 2005) – The DeSales University men’s basketball team used an 18-4 run over a nine minute span in the second half to defeat Averett University, 64-53, in the opening game of the fourth annual Casa Mia Holiday Tournament in Billera Hall.

 

        The win advances the Bulldogs (8-3 overall) to the championship game of the Casa Mia Tournament at 4:00 pm on Saturday afternoon.  DSU will play Elizabethtown College (7-5 overall), a 93-63 winner of Grove City College (5-7 overall).  Averett (3-5 overall) takes on Grove City in the consolation game beginning at 2:00 pm.

 

        Trailing by five points, 36-31, with 16:30 left to play in the second half, DeSales went on an 18-4 run over the next nine minutes to take a commanding nine-point lead, 49-40, and never really looked back.  Senior Michael Venafra (Belmont Hills, PA/Lower Merion) scored nine points during the spurt and junior Drew Christman (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) started and ended the run with lay-ups for the Bulldogs.

 

        Averett never got any closer than seven points the rest of the way as the Bulldogs shot 57.7 percent in the second half to record the win.

 

        In the first half both teams shot poorly with DeSales converting 34.6 percent of its shots and the Cougars canning just 32.0 percent as the two teams settled for a tie at 24.  The opening 20 minutes saw five lead changes and four ties.

 

        Venafra finished with a game-high 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting and fellow senior Kyle Koch (Lehighton, PA/Lehighton) added 16 points and seven rebounds.  Freshman Phil Stricker (Womelsdorf, PA/Conrad Weiser) totaled 10 points, eight in the first half and senior Kevin Welsh (Havertown, PA/Haverford) dished out a game-high seven assists in the win.

 

        Averett was led by Andrew Boor with 12 points and Lymon Gregory with 11 tallies.

 

        In the second game, Elizabethtown torched the nets for 54.4 percent shooting and 56.0 percent (14-of-25) shooting from outside the arc to post the victory.  The Blue Jays jumped out to a 20-4 lead before Grove City cut the lead to seven points late in the first half but never any closer as E-Town advances to the championship game of the Casa Mia Tournament for the second time in three years.

 

        Four players scored in double digits for the Blue Jays including Jon Connor with 19 points, Kyle Conrad with 16 points, Dan Keane with 11 points and Andrew Flynn also with 11 tallies.