Center Valley, PA (February 7, 2007) – Junior Phil Stricker (Womelsdorf, PA/Conrad Weiser) entered what many refer to as “the zone” on Wednesday evening scoring a career-high 33 points and leading the DeSales University men’s basketball team past FDU-Florham, 81-68, in a Freedom Conference game on Wednesday evening.

 

        The win improves the Bulldogs to 16-6 overall and 7-4 in the Freedom Conference, while the loss drops the Devils to 15-7 overall and 7-4 in the Freedom.  The Bulldogs torched the nets at a 54.2 percent clip and shot 15-of-18 (83.3 percent) from the free throw line.  DSU also won the battle on the boards out-rebounding FDU, 40-31.

 

        The first half was back and forth with FDU grabbing a 24-22 lead with 6:20 to go before DeSales ended the half on a 12-3 run to take a 34-27 lead into the locker room.  Stricker and sophomore Ed Lapinski (Red Hill, PA/Upper Perkiomen) each had four points during the run.

 

        The second half started out all DeSales as they pushed its seven-point halftime lead into a 21-point second-half margin with an 18-4 run out of the locker room as Stricker led the way with 10 points during the spurt.  The Devils made some adjustments and packed its man-to-man defense into a 2-3 zone, thus forcing DSU to find other ways to score other than Stricker down on the low blocks.

 

        Initially the defensive change worked as the Devils clawed its way back into the game cutting the Bulldog lead down to eight points, 62-54, with 5:16 to go.  After a timeout with 5:04 on the clock, freshman Darnell Braswell (Allentown, PA/William Allen) took over from the outside hitting consecutive three-pointers to make it 68-54 and more importantly forcing FDU out of its zone defense.

 

        Stricker responded with four straight points and junior Eddie Ohlson (Allentown, PA/Parkland) hit 6-of-6 from the foul line over the last 90 seconds to preserve the home victory.

 

        Stricker shot 14-of-21 from the field en route to his career-high 33 points.  Braswell finished with 12 points and tied his season-high with nine rebounds and Ohlson totaled nine points and dished out 10 assists.  Lapinski and senior Steve Kriczky (Birdsboro, PA/Daniel Boone) each had eight points for the Bulldogs.

 

        FDU was led by seniors Pierre Schmitt with 21 points and Brian Rimol with 19 points.  Sophomore Brandon Matano contributed with 17 points off the bench including four three-pointers.