Center Valley, PA, (February 11, 2006) – The DeSales University men’s basketball team continued to struggle in Billera Hall in Freedom Conference games this season letting a 10-point lead in the second half slip away as Lycoming College defeated the Bulldogs, 71-61, in a critical Freedom Conference game for both teams on Saturday afternoon.

 

        DeSales (15-8, 6-6 Freedom) finishes its Freedom Conference schedule with just three wins in seven games at home this year and Lycoming (14-9, 8-4 Freedom) travels home with a win in Billera Hall for the first time since the 1998-99 season, a span of seven games.  The win gives LC a split of the season series but more importantly allows them to stay tied for third place in the Freedom Conference standings with Wilkes University at 8-4.

 

        The Bulldogs used the three-point shot in the first-half to lead by five, 30-25, at the break.  Seniors Drew Christman (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) and Mike Zinn (Hanover, PA/Delone Catholic) combined for six treys in the opening half as the two totaled 22 of the 30 DSU points.

 

        The second-half started much like the first with DeSales using a 10-2 run over a four-minute span to extend a two-point lead into a 10-point cushion, 40-30, with 15:05 to play.  During the run, Zinn connected on two treys for the Bulldogs.

 

        DSU continued to lead by nine, 42-33, on a lay-up from freshman Jeff Raimo (Allentown, PA/Allentown Central Catholic) when the Bulldogs went cold.  The Warriors out-scored DeSales, 38-19, the rest of the game and DSU had no answer for LC’s surge on the offensive end.

 

        Trailing by nine at the 12:26 mark, Lycoming scored seven straight points to cut the margin down to two points and took the lead for good at the 6:41 mark on a three-pointer from senior Jonathan Pribble.  The lead swelled to as high as 12 points on three different occasions before the final was posted.

 

        The Bulldogs’ two seniors, Christman and Zinn, totaled 36 of DSU’s 61 points with Christman tallying 22 on 7-of-14 shooting and Zinn finishing with 14 on 5-of-11 from the field.  Sophomore Eddie Ohlson (Allentown, PA/Parkland) finished with 10 points, all of which came over the last three minutes and no other Bulldog finished with more than three points.

 

        Freshman Greg Sye was the difference for the Warriors as he finished with a double-double of 23 points and 10 rebounds.  Pribble, the Freedom Conference’s leading scorer, was held to just 13 points on 5-of-14 shooting and sophomore Kevin Morris tallied 13 on the strength of three treys.  LC enjoyed a healthy advantage from the free throw line as they went 23-of-32 from the charity stripe compared to just 5-for-9 for the Bulldogs.