Williamsport, PA (February 10, 2007) – The DeSales University men’s basketball team torched the nets in the first half, opening up a nine-point halftime lead, but could not find the same touch in the second half, shooting just 40.7 percent and falling at Lycoming College, 74-65, in a Freedom Conference game on Saturday afternoon in Lamade Gymnasium.

 

        The Warriors (12-11, 5-7 Freedom) started out strong taking a 13-4 lead early by shooting 6-for-8 from the field.  DSU (16-7, 7-5 Freedom) chipped away at the lead over the next 10 minutes, cutting the margin to three points at 30-27 with 5:07 to play, before finishing the half on a 12-0 run to take a 39-30 lead into the locker room.  During the run four different Bulldogs scored including junior Phil Stricker (Womelsdorf, PA/Conrad Weiser) with a team-high five points.

 

        The second half started with much of the same as DeSales opened up its largest lead of the game, 11 points, on consecutive Stricker lay-ups.  Still leading by 10 after a short jumper from sophomore Ed Lapinski (Red Hill, PA/Upper Perkiomen), the momentum began to shift as the Warriors switched defenses and the Bulldogs struggled to score.

 

        A 45-35 lead at the 14:48 mark was erased by an 11-0 Warrior run over the next two minutes and the teams battled back and forth over the next seven minutes to gain control of the contest.  With the score tied at 55 and 5:32 on the clock, Lycoming seized control of the game as David Wilson hit a three-pointer from the left corner igniting a 14-4 run that put the hosts up 10 points, 69-59, with 1:16 left and eventually sent the Bulldogs home with a loss.

 

        DSU shot 57.7 percent from the field in the first half in building its nine-point halftime lead but struggled in the second half, canning just 3-of-12 from three-point land in the loss.  Lycoming struggled in the first half from the field, shooting just 38.7 percent, but answered the challenge in the second half by converting on 66.7 percent of its attempts, including a 5-for-7 effort from three-point territory.

 

        The inside tandem of Stricker and Lapinski dominated the paint as they combined for 37 points and 13 rebounds.  Stricker totaled 19 points and now stands just 47 points shy of becoming the 20^th player in men’s basketball history to score 1,000 points, while Lapinski added 18 tallies and grabbed seven boards off the bench.

 

        Junior Eddie Ohlson (Allentown, PA/Parkland) finished with 11 assists to break the single-season record which had been held by Neale Boyle since the 1988-89 season.  Ohlson now has 172 helpers on the year and is just 35 assists away from becoming the career leader at DeSales.  Senior Sedale Walton (Levittown, PA/Harry S. Truman) also reached double digits with 12 points off the bench.

 

        Lycoming received 58 of its 74 points from three players as Kevin Morris tallied 24 points, including four three-pointers, Jemayne Nowlin totaled 20 points and David Wilson tallied 14 points.  Anthony Watson also had a strong game with six points, six rebounds and nine assists.