Box Score BOX SCORE
Center Valley, Pa. (December 7, 2007) – Junior Matt Zwetolitz (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) scored a career-high 15 points and a strong defensive effort yet again led the DeSales University men's basketball team past Albright College, 64-57, in a non-conference game on Saturday afternoon in Billera Hall.
The win improves DeSales to 7-1 on the season and is the 17th straight at home for the Bulldogs, while the loss drops the Lions to 5-2 on the year. AC came into the game out-rebounding opponents by an average of 11+ boards per game but DSU turned the tides holding a 36-33 edge on the glass en route to the win. The Lions shot 44.6 percent from the field, while DeSales canned 94.1 percent (16-of-17) from the free throw line.
DSU led by eight, 55-47 at the 7:09 mark, when it went cold from the field and were out-scored 8-0 over the next five minutes before junior Ed Lapinski (Red Hill, PA/Upper Perkiomen) drilled a three-pointer from the right wing to untie the game and give the Bulldogs a 58-55 lead.
After a missed free throw from Albright on the next possession, Lapinski was long on another three attempt but the Bulldogs played tough defense on the Lion's next possession as senior Eddie Ohlson (Allentown, PA/Parkland) grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 37 ticks left. Ohlson calmly knocked both freebies down and went 6-for-6 over the final 37 seconds to post the final seven-point margin.
The first 12 minutes of the game were back-and-forth until DSU used a quick 7-0 run including five points from Zwetolitz to pull ahead, 20-14. The lead peaked at nine points in the opening half before the Bulldogs settled for a seven-point lead at the break, 31-24. The lead swelled to as many as 10 points early in the second half and DeSales continued to lead until the cold spell from the 7:09 mark till the 2 minute mark when Lapinski's three-pointer regained the lead and Ohlson sealed the game from the foul line.
Several players had strong performances in the win including Zwetolitz who shot 3-for-4 from three-point land to register his career-high. Ohlson also had a strong offensive game scoring 14 points including a stretch in the second half when he scored six straight points on three straight possessions for the Bulldogs.
Lapinski finished with 11 points and pulled down six rebounds, while senior Phil Stricker (Womelsdorf, PA/Conrad Weiser) totaled six points and grabbed a team-high eight boards. Sophomores Darnell Braswell (Allentown, PA/William Allen) and Eric Salem (Reading, PA/Exeter) also had strong games as Salem totaled seven points off the bench, while Braswell was tremendous on the defensive end holding the Lions' leading scorer entering the game to just two points on 1-of-5 shooting.
Junior Phil Hall led Albright recording a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds, while senior Kyle Brudvig finished with 13 points off the bench.
The Bulldogs will take most of next week off to break for final exams and will return to action on Wednesday, December 19th when they travel to Muhlenberg College with tip set for 7:00 pm The game will be broadcast live on the radio at Fox 1470 am and can be heard on the internet at - http://www.fox1470.com/pages/foxstreaming.html.
