Center Valley, PA, (March 2, 2005) – The DeSales University men’s basketball team saw its 2004-05 season come to a close as the third seeded Bulldogs were upset by the sixth seeded Catholic University Cardinals, 72-71, in overtime on Wednesday evening in the opening round of the ECAC South Region Tournament.

 

        The Bulldogs finish the year with a 20-8 overall record, while Catholic (19-9 overall) advances to the semifinals of the ECAC South Region Tournament being held at Franklin & Marshall College on Friday and Saturday.

 

        The game came down to the final possession in overtime as DeSales stole an inbounds pass with 16 seconds left and took a timeout down by one point.  After working the ball around on the left side of the court, the Bulldogs swung the ball over to the right side to senior Michael Venafra (Belmont Hills, PA/Lower Merion).  Venafra who was blanketed all day by the Cardinals, faked a shot, drove right, tried to hit an off-balance reverse lay-up but it fell short and was knocked out of bounds.  The referee signaled DeSales ball as Catholic had knocked the rebound out of bounds, but time had run out on the scoreboard and the Cardinals had escaped with a one point win.

 

        The first half was a back and forth affair that saw three ties and seven lead changes.  Each team led by as many as six points, 8-2 in favor of DeSales and 25-19 in favor of Catholic, before they both settled for a 33-31 Cardinal lead at the break.  Junior Drew Christman (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) tallied 11 for DeSales and Scott Fumai hit four treys for 12 points to lead CU at the half.

 

        At the start of the second-half, Catholic seemed to have the game under control as they took a 10-point lead, 47-37, with 12:34 left to play.  Consecutive three-pointers by Christman and fellow junior Mike Zinn (Hanover, PA/Delone Catholic) sparked a 16-5 run; giving DeSales its first lead of the second half at 53-52.

 

        After the fourth tie of the game in the second half at 58, the Cardinals’ Shane Sowden hit a lay-up and a jumper from the foul line to put Catholic up four with 4:28 remaining.  A 7-0 run that included a three-pointer from senior Kyle Koch (Lehighton, PA/Lehighton); a jumper from Venafra and two free throws from Koch made it a 65-62 game with 2:11 left favoring the Bulldogs.

 

        DeSales had two opportunities to push the lead to five with under two minutes left but a steal on Catholic’s next possession led a turnover on the offensive end and after a Cardinal miss the Bulldogs squandered a golden opportunity to put the game away as a reverse lay-up spun off the rim with 1:25 to go.  Catholic took advantage as Mike Wasilenko found himself open in transition and nailed his only three-pointer of the game to tie the score at 65.

 

        After a missed fall away jumper and tip-in on DeSales final possession and a missed desperation three-pointer on CU’s final attempt in regulation, the two teams were headed for overtime.

 

        In the extra period, the score remained tied at 69 with 1:02 left before Catholic’s Pat Satalin hit a three-pointer to give CU a 72-69 lead with 48 seconds left.  Christman was fouled on the Bulldogs next possession and after initially being signaled a shooting foul from beyond the arc, meaning three foul shots, the referee’s convened and changed the call to on the pass and Christman went to the line for a 1-and-1.  He canned both free throws making it a 72-71 lead.

 

        On the ensuing inbounds pass, CU’s point guard had his pass tipped out of bounds knocking the clock down to 21 seconds.  After a timeout, because Catholic was unable to get the next inbounds pass in, DeSales stole the ball and immediately signaled for its own timeout setting up the final play with 16 seconds remaining that saw Venafra’s reverse lay-up come up short and time run out.

 

        Christman was fantastic for DeSales as he netted a career-high 25 points on 5-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc.  He also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.  Venafra was the only other player in double digits for DeSales with 12 points.  Spadt finished with six points and three steals and Koch totaled nine points and five assists.