Scoring Drought/Miscues Spoil DeSales in 60-55 Loss at Manhattanville

Sophomore Brian Hunter had 11 points and three steals in the loss at Manhattanville.

Box Score

BOX SCORE

Purchase, NY (January 29, 2009) – The DeSales University men's basketball team committed a season-high 20 turnovers and were held scoreless for a stretch of just over eight minutes in the second half leading to a 60-55 road loss at Manhattanville College in a Freedom Conference game on Thursday evening in Kennedy Gymnasium.

The loss drops DSU (15-3, 8-2 Freedom) and Manhattanville (12-6, 8-2 Freedom) into a tie atop the Freedom Conference standings heading into the final month of the regular season. The 20 turnovers is a season-high for the Bulldogs as DSU was also out-rebounded, 34-25. The Valiants committed just 14 turnovers themselves and capitalized on the DeSales mistakes with 21 of their 60 points coming off turnovers.

The Bulldogs started strong in the opening half building a 19-6 lead over the first seven and a half minutes thanks in part to seven points from junior Darnell Braswell (Allentown, PA/William Allen) and two three-pointers from sophomore Brian Hunter (Allentown, PA/Emmaus) and freshman #Bob Zanneo# (Philadelphia, PA/Father Judge).

Around the 10-minute mark, DSU ran into some early foul trouble with Braswell and junior Jim Malatesta (Warminster, PA/Archbishop Wood) picking up two fouls each and the Valiants chipped away at the lead, pulling within three (27-24) with 2:54 to go in the opening half. Braswell re-entered the game and immediately made his presence felt with a three-pointer and Hunter followed suit with the final five points of the half to give DeSales a 35-28 halftime advantage.

The Bulldogs kept MVille off the scoreboard for the first 4:50 of the second half as senior Ed Lapinski (Red Hill, PA/Upper Perkiomen) converted two lay-ups to push the lead to 11 points, 39-28, at the 15:10 mark, but over the next eight minutes the Valiant defense dominated play forcing six DSU turnovers in that span and holding the Bulldogs scoreless until Braswell quieted a raucous crowd with a jumper at the 9:27 mark to make the score 46-41, in favor of Manhattanville.

The game went back-and-forth over the next few minutes with senior Matt Zwetoltiz (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) scoring five straight points and Braswell adding a short jumper to pull the Bulldogs within three, 51-48, at the 5:59 mark. Seven straight points from the Valiants pushed the lead back to 10 points, 58-48, with 2:33 remaining, but a Zwetolitz three cut the margin down to seven with 2:14 left.

After a stop on the defensive end, the Bulldogs converted 2-of-4 free throws (following an offensive board on the first set of two charity tosses) and trailed by just five with 1:19 to go. After several turnovers gave DSU the ball back, Zwetolitz canned a long jumper with his foot on the three-point line cutting the margin down to three points (58-55) with 25 seconds left.

Forced to foul, MVille's, Wesley Wicks, went to the line with a chance to ice the game but he missed the front end of a one-and-one and DeSales had a chance to tie with a three. Zwetolitz got the ball in the right corner, pumped, dribbled once and tried to kick the ball out to a wide open Hunter, but the ball was deflected and wound up in the hands of Lamar Glass who was fouled and hit both charity tosses with nine seconds left to provide the final score.

Braswell finished with a game-high 17 points 6-of-9 shooting in the loss, while Hunter (11 points) and Zwetolitz (10 points) also reached double figures. Lapinski finished with nine points and seven boards.

Glen Rodriguez led the Valiants with a double-double (13 points and 10 rebounds) off the bench. Glass has 12 points and Wicks had 11 tallies to round out the double figure scoring for Manhattanville.

The Bulldogs return to action on Saturday, January 31^st when they return home to host FDU-Florham in another Freedom Conference game beginning at 3:00 pm. Once again for those unable to attend you can either follow long via LIVE stats or listen via LIVE audio.

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