Center Valley, PA, (February 12, 2005) – Senior Kyle Koch (Lehighton, PA/Lehighton) became the 19^th player in men’s basketball history to score 1,000 points and the DeSales University men’s basketball stormed past the University of Scranton, 89-54, in Freedom Conference action on Saturday afternoon in Billera Hall.

 

        The win moves DeSales (17-6, 9-3 Freedom) into sole possession of second place entering the final week of the regular season, while the loss drops Scranton (17-5, 8-4 Freedom) into third place in the conference standings.  DSU shot 51.8 percent from the field in the win and canned 14-of-26 three-pointers (53.8 percent) in the win.  The Bulldogs also forced 18 Royal turnovers and committed just nine miscues themselves.

 

        A close game at 24-22 with 9:44 left in the first half was broken open by the Bulldogs.  DeSales out-scored Scranton 22-9 over the final 9:44 and entered the locker rooms with a 46-31 lead.  Koch tallied a team-high 11 points and junior Drew Christman (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) continued his torrid shooting with 10 first-half points.

 

        The second-half was all Bulldogs as they opened with a 17-0 run to push the lead up to 28 points, 65-37, and never looked back.  The lead swelled to as many as 38 points on two occasions until the final margin was recorded at 89-54.

 

        Koch scored his 1,000^th point on a three-pointer with 8:09 left in the game.  He finished with 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting.  Christman was the game’s high scorer with 20 points on 7-of-8 shooting including four treys.  Fellow senior Kevin Welsh (Havertown, PA/Haverford) totaled 10 points and seven assists, senior Michael Venafra (Belmont Hills, PA/Lower Merion) added eight points and senior David Spadt (Emmaus, PA/Emmaus) had eight points and three steals.

 

        The Royals were led by senior Brian O’Donnell who tallied 12 points and was the lone Scranton player to reach double digits.