New Year Begins as Last Year Ended; #25 DSU Rolls, 86-53, over John Jay

Senior Ed Lapinski had a game-high 18 points in the win over John Jay College.

Box Score

BOX SCORE (First Game)

BOX SCORE (Second Game)

Center Valley, PA (January 3, 2009) – The 25^th ranked DeSales University men's basketball team picked up where it left off in 2008 rolling to its ninth straight win to start the season with an 86-53 win over John Jay College in the opening round of the Casa Mia Holiday Tournament in Billera Hall on Saturday afternoon.

Like most Division III teams the Bulldogs (9-0 overall) had not taken the court in a long time, going a span of 21 days between games but the lay-off did not seem to bother DSU as it shot 53.2 percent from the field to record a 33-point win at home to start the New Year. The win advances DeSales to the championship game of its own tournament (Casa Mia Holiday Tournament) where it will face SUNY-Brockport, a 78-57 winner over Immaculata, at 4:00 pm on Sunday afternoon.

A tight game early was broken open late in the first half as the Bulldogs used a 16-4 run over the final 8:03 of the half to extend a four-point lead into a 16-point halftime cushion. The three-pointer proved to be the difference in the run as DSU connected on four from long distance including two from junior Rob Schubach (Center Valley, PA/Southern Lehigh) and one each from senior Matt Zwetolitz (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) and junior Darnell Braswell (Allentown, PA/William Allen).

The lead never fell below 17 points in the second half before peaking at its highest margin (33 points) in the final score. The Bulldogs took advantage of 24 Bloodhound (3-8 overall) turnovers by scoring 31 times off those miscues. DeSales committed just 10 turnovers and used a balanced scoring attack that saw five players reach double digits and 10 different players score in the win.

Leading the way was senior Ed Lapinski (Red Hill, PA/Upper Perkiomen) with a game-high 18 points and seven boards. Braswell and Schubach each had 12 points, junior Jim Malatesta (Warminster, PA/Archbishop Wood) added 11 tallies off the bench, Zwetolitz finished with 10 points and sophomore Brian Hunter (Allentown, PA/Emmaus) had a solid all-around game with nine points, seven assists and five steals.

JJC was led by Chris Jaeger with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Vaughn Mason came off the bench to score 14 points, all in the second half.

In the other opening round match-up SUNY-Brockport shot 64.0 percent in the second half pulling away from Immaculata University to advance to the championship game. Joel Almeida led four players in double figures with 22 points and Eamon Kays had 10 points and 12 boards in the win. Julius Lopez had 23 points on 4-of-10 shooting from deep in the loss.

DSU has never lost in the Casa Mia Holiday Tournament improving to 13-0 with the win today. The consolation game will start at 2:00 pm, with the championship tilt to follow at 4:00 pm. You can follow the championship game via LIVE Stats if you are unable to attend.

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