BOX SCORE

Center Valley, PA (December 12, 2009) – The 21st ranked DeSales University men's basketball team led by as many as 16 points early in the second half and withstood a furious second-half rally from the Cardinals, hanging on for its 16th straight win at home, 64-62, over St. John Fisher College in non-conference action on Saturday afternoon in Billera Hall.

The Bulldogs (6-3 overall), playing without injured All-American senior guard Darnell Braswell (Allentown, PA/William Allen), trailed 14-8 over the first nine minutes of the game before clamping down on defense and catching fire from outside the arc to take control of the game. DSU held the Cardinals (3-2 overall) without a field goal for the next eight minutes and used a 24-4 run during that stretch to take a 14-point lead (32-18) at the 3:07 mark of the first half.

During the run, DeSales couldn't miss from three-point land going 5-for-6 from outside the arc as senior Rob Schubach (Center Valley, PA/Southern Lehigh) led the way with three of the five triples during the spurt. St. John Fisher pulled to within nine points at the one minute mark but a three-pointer from the top of the key from sophomore Bob Zanneo (Philadelphia, PA/Father Judge) pushed the advantage up to 12 points at the break.

DSU shot 8-for-13 (61.5 percent) from downtown over the first 20 minutes and controlled the boards, holding a 10-rebound advantage (23-13) on the glass in the first half. The Cardinals converted just 25.8 percent of its shots (8-for-31) due mostly to a zone defense the Bulldogs switched to mid-way thru the half that seemed to frustrate St. John Fisher on the offensive end.

The start of the second half was more of the same as Schubach continued to stay hot from three-point land, hitting three long-range bombs over the first six and a half minutes to give DSU its largest lead of the game at 50-34 with 14:24 left to play.

Then DeSales went cold from the field and the Cardinals began to chip away.

St. John Fisher scored seven straight points to get within nine points before sophomore Jamey Bercier (Stroudsburg, PA/Notre Dame) converted a lay-up and freshman Brett Moyer (Souderton, PA/Christopher Dock) hit two free throws to push the lead up 11 points at the 11:54 mark.

The next eight and a half minutes belonged to St. John Fisher as they went on a 15-3 run to take its only lead of the second half, 58-57, at the 3:21 mark. The Bulldogs went just 1-for-7 from the field and committed five turnovers during the stretch but were mostly hurt on the other end of the court where the Cardinals willed their way to seven offensive rebounds during the run leading to nine of the 15 points during the spurt and allowing the visitor's back into the game.

After Fisher took its first lead junior Brian Hunter (Allentown, PA/Emmaus) took control of the game on the offensive end hitting one free throw to tie the game, then another on the next possession to give DSU a 59-58 lead with 2:28 left. After a Fisher timeout and a Schubach steal, Hunter again came up big with a running jumper just outside the lane on the next possession giving DSU a 61-58 advantage with 1:37 remaining.

The Cardinals quickly scored inside to make it a one-point game and DeSales hit 2-of-4 free throws, after an offensive rebound on the first free throw miss, to take a 63-60 lead with 25 ticks left. Jordan Gettings rolled in an off-balance finger roll with 11 seconds left as Hunter was sent to the line with 6.5 seconds left. He made 1-of-2 freebies and a last second 10-footer was off the mark for the Cardinals giving DeSales its 16th straight home victory.

Schubach was terrific in Braswell's absence with a career-high 20 points on 6-of-10 shooting three-point land. Hunter came up big down the stretch with 16 points and Zanneo also gave the Bulldogs a scoring boost with 12 points off the bench. Moyer had seven points and five boards in his first career start and senior Jim Malatesta (Warminster, PA/Archbishop Wood) tallied a game-high five assists in the win.

Michael Wopperer led the Cardinals with 16 points and Matt Newman added 10 tallies to round St. John Fisher's double figure scoring.

The Bulldogs take a break this week for finals on campus and next week for the Christmas holidays. DSU will return to game action on Wednesday, December 30th when they take on Centenary College for a non-conference game beginning at 7:00 pm.