Center Valley, PA (January 17, 2007) – Freshman Darnell Braswell (Allentown, PA/William Allen) sent the game into overtime and sophomore Matt Zwetolitz (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) made sure it ended there as the DeSales University men’s basketball team survived with a 67-62 overtime win over Drew University on Wednesday evening in Freedom Conference action.

 

        Trailing by four with 37 seconds left after the Rangers’ Ryan Eisner gave the visitors a 55-51 lead with a fall away 6-foot jumper, junior Phil Stricker (Womelsdorf, PA/Conrad Weiser) cut the lead in half with a soft jumper in the lane on a perfect feed from fellow junior Eddie Ohlson (Allentown, PA/Parkland) with 24 seconds left.  DSU pressured the inbounds pass and after failing to get a steal they fouled Eisner in the backcourt sending him to the line for a one-and-one.  Eisner missed the front end and the ball was knocked out of bounds off the Rangers.

 

        DSU took a timeout with 13 ticks left and the first play they ran was covered well by Drew and the Bulldogs took a second timeout with five seconds left.  Braswell got the ball on the inbounds play and fired a three-pointer from the left wing, the ball hit the front rim and Braswell followed it, grabbed the rebound, dribbled once and hit a running jumper from just inside the lane that hit the backboard and found the bottom of the net.  With one second on the clock, the Rangers tried a quick inbounds pass hoping for a long last second attempt but Ohlson stole the ball and the game was headed to overtime.

 

        In the extra session, senior Steve Kriczky (Birdsboro, PA/Daniel Boone) hit the opening jumper but Drew answered with a three-pointer from Damon DiLorenzo.  Zwetolitz took over from there converting a three-point play on a short jumper on the right side of the lane and hitting a 10-foot jumper from just inside the foul line on the next possession giving DSU a 62-58 lead with 1:29 to play.

 

        Leading by five after one Stricker free throw, junior Chris Lopez cut the lead to two points with 56 seconds to play.  Braswell missed a trey on the other end but Stricker ended up with the offensive rebound and was immediately fouled.  He knocked down both freebies and the Bulldogs escaped with the win.

 

        Both teams shot poorly in the game with DeSales converting just 40 percent of its attempts and Drew knocking down just 40.3 percent.  The Rangers had eight three’s and DSU held a large advantage at the foul line making 15-of-21 as compared to just 4-of-9 for Drew.  Drew committed just five turnovers in 45 minutes of basketball, while the Bulldogs enjoyed a 46-29 edge on the boards.

 

        Stricker finished with a team-high 19 points and pulled down seven rebounds, Braswell had 13 points and totaled a season-high nine rebounds and Zwetolitz added 11 points and five rebounds off the bench.  Kriczky also reached double-digits with 11 points and Ohlson finished with six points and nine assists to lead the Bulldogs.

 

        Lopez had a game-high 20 points and eight rebounds, DiLorenzo totaled 11 points and eight rebounds and Gerard Mullin had 10 points in the loss.