Center Valley, PA, (February 26, 2005) – In what will do down as one of the greatest Freedom Conference Championship games in history, the King’s College Monarchs held off DeSales University, 77-72, to earn the Freedom title and the automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament on Saturday afternoon in Billera Hall.

 

        Senior Brian Horgan was named the Tournament Most Valuable Player as he scored a team-high 18 points and averaged 25.5 points over the two playoff games.  The win improves King’s to 22-5 overall, while the loss drops the Bulldogs to 20-7 overall.  DSU will now await a possible ECAC Tournament bid, which will be announced on Monday afternoon.

 

        The game was a treat for all who attended.  It featured 13 lead changes, six ties and a comeback in the second half turning a 16-point deficit into a two-point lead.  In the first half, King’s used a 14-1 run over the last 5:01 of the opening half to take a commanding 41-29 lead into the locker rooms.

 

        KC shot 54.8 percent in the opening half and DeSales converted just 28.6 percent of its shots.  The Bulldogs also committed 10 first-half miscues.  Thomas Moore came off the bench to score 10 points and Jim Welsh connected on all three of his treys to lead the Monarchs into the locker room.

 

        The second-half was one for the ages.  King’s continued to lead at the start and pushed its advantage to 16 points twice including a 56-40 edge with 11:54 remaining before DeSales switched its defense to a zone and began an incredible comeback.  A jumper by junior Drew Christman (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall), another by senior Kyle Koch (Lehighton, PA/Lehighton) and a three-pointer from senior Michael Venafra (Belmont Hills, PA/Lower Merion) quickly made it a 56-47 game with 9:47 to go.

 

        The two teams traded buckets over the next two minutes and King’s continued to lead by nine, 62-53, before Christman started a 9-2 spurt cutting the margin to two points at 64-62.  Freshman Phil Stricker (Womelsdorf, PA/Conrad Weiser) hit a lay-up and Venafra hit four free throws to highlight the run.

 

        King’s answered as senior point guard Landon Gabriel hit a three-pointer to make it 67-62, but a three-pointer on the other end by Christman, followed by a lay-up by Christman and two free throws from Stricker gave DeSales its first lead of the second half, 69-67, with 2:44 remaining.

 

        King’s missed on the other end but John Soboleski grabbed the rebound and was fouled and hit both freebies.  A steal by Horgan led to two more free throws and after DSU missed a good look from long distance on its next possession, KC was again fouled and freshman Vince Scalzo knocked down two charity tosses to make it a four-point game, 73-69.

 

        Another miss by DeSales forced them to foul once again but the Monarchs missed the front end on the line and Venafra canned a triple on the ensuing possession to make it 73-72 with 32 seconds left.  DSU fouled Horgan on the next possession and he hit both free throws making it a three-point game.  DeSales worked the ball around on the offensive end before Christman attempted the tying three-pointer from out above the top of the key and it hit the back iron and Moore finally secured a rebound that was tipped around for several seconds.  He hit both free throws and KC had the Freedom Conference title.

 

        Venafra scored a game-high 23 points, including 21 points in the second half to lead DeSales.  Christman had 12 points, freshman Eddie Ohlson (Allentown, PA/Parkland) was again sensational matching his season-high with nine points and junior Mike Zinn (Hanover, PA/Delone Catholic) and Stricker each added nine in the loss.