Box Score BOX SCORE
Center Valley, Pa. (March 1, 2008) – For the third time over the last four years the DeSales University men's basketball team and King's College battled for the Freedom Conference championship and for the third time the Monarchs came out on top defeating the Bulldogs, 71-62, in front of another packed house in Billera Hall on Saturday afternoon.
The Monarchs (19-8 overall) earn the Freedom's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, while the Bulldogs hope its 21-6 overall record and high regional ranking is enough to garner them one of 17 Pool “C” bids handed out on Monday afternoon. The entire NCAA Tournament field will be announced around Noon on Monday as the Bulldogs will sit and wait for a possible invite.
If you look at the stat sheet for this game almost every category is dead even with the exception of shooting percentage where the Monarchs shot 51.9 percent (57.7 % in the second half) as compared to just 40.7 percent (39.3% in the second half) for the Bulldogs. Both teams were 9-for-14 from the free throw line, DeSales held a slim 32-28 edge on the glass and King's enjoyed a tiny margin in turnovers (11-8), but KC made five more field goals than the Bulldogs and the Monarch bench out-scored the DSU bench, 31-8, in the game.
The first half was back-and-forth the entire way with DeSales holding the largest lead (six points) at the 12:17 mark (19-13). Following a King's timeout after a lay-up from junior Ed Lapinski (Red Hill, PA/Upper Perkiomen), the Monarchs responded with a 9-0 run over the next 3:46 to take a 22-19 lead. Senior Eddie Ohlson (Allentown, PA/Parkland) responded with a three-pointer to re-tie the game at 22 and the two teams traded baskets over the final eight minutes before a short jumper from senior Jamie Cousart with three seconds left gave KC a 31-28 lead entering the locker room.
The start of the second half was also back-and-forth as the teams kept trading baskets for the first 5:44 as the score was tied for the seventh time at 43. A three-pointer from senior Ryan Nenstiel broke the tie and ignited an 8-1 run that DeSales never seemed to recover from. Nenstiel scored the first five points of the run and senior Kofi Dwebeng nailed a back-breaking pull-up three-pointer on the break to force a Bulldog timeout and make the score 51-44 with 12:35 to go.
After the timeout, DeSales did make a run at the lead as senior Jamie McCloskey (Newark, DE/St. Mark's) provided a lift off the bench with an old fashioned three-point play and then a three-pointer from the top of the key that touched nothing but net to cut the deficit down to three points at 53-50. After a three-pointer from junior Matt Zwetolitz (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) at the 8:33 mark pulled DSU within five (58-53), the Bulldogs went cold from the field finishing the game making just 1-of-10 shots over the next 7:26 sealing the win for the Monarchs.
Senior Phil Stricker (Womelsdorf, PA/Conrad Weiser) was tremendous in the loss recording his fourth double-double of the season with 20 points and 13 rebounds. Lapinski also reached double figures with 12 points and pulled down six boards, while sophomore Darnell Braswell (Allentown, PA/William Allen) added 10 points. Ohlson finished with six points and a game-high eight assists.
Senior John Soboleski was named the Freedom Conference playoffs Most Valuable Player as he finished today's game with 12 points, four rebounds and four assists. Nenstiel was the story today coming off the bench to score 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting and fellow senior Vince Scalzo added nine points in the win.
