Quick Start Propels DeSales past Wilkes, 65-50

Junior Jim Malatesta scored a career-high 14 points in the win over WIlkes on Wednesday.

Box Score

BOX SCORE

Center Valley, PA (February 4, 2009) – The DeSales University men's basketball team opened the game by scoring the first 14 points and led 20-2 at the 14:01 mark propelling the Bulldogs to a 65-50 win over Wilkes University in a Freedom Conference game on Wednesday evening in Billera Hall.

The win improves the Bulldogs to 17-3 overall and 10-2 in the Freedom Conference, while Wilkes falls to 10-9 overall and 6-6 in the Freedom. DSU shot a blistering 55.6 percent from the field in the opening half and held Wilkes to just 27.6 percent shooting over the first twenty minutes in the win.

Junior Jim Malatesta (Warminster, PA/Archbishop Wood) opened the game with back-to-back lay-ups followed by a jumper from sophomore Brian Hunter (Allentown, PA/Emmaus) to give DSU a 6-0 lead and prompting a Wilkes 30-second timeout.

Out of the timeout, the Bulldogs kept attacking as Hunter canned two free throws, senior Ed Lapinski (Red Hill, PA/Upper Perkiomen) hit back-to-back short jumpers and junior Darnell Braswell (Allentown, PA/William Allen) got on the board with a fast break lay-up to make the score 14-0, as the Colonels were forced to spend another 30-second timeout.

Wilkes got on the board as Anthony Gabriel made a short jumper out of the timeout but Braswell and freshman Bob Zanneo (Philadelphia, PA/Father Judge) hit back-to-back three-pointers to push the lead to 18 (20-2) and DeSales never really looked back from there.

The lead peaked at 20 in the first-half and was 19 at the break (37-18). In the second half, Wilkes chipped away and got within 15 once, but DSU pushed the lead as high as 22 points after that before the final margin was posted.

Braswell led the way with 15 points and eight rebounds in the win, while Malatesta finished with a career-high 14 points, grabbed six rebounds, and had four assists for the Bulldogs. Lapinski totaled 12 points and grabbed six rebounds and Zanneo came off the bench to score nine points. Hunter added seven points and five assists.

Juniors Tom Kresge and sophomore Anthony Gabriel each had 12 points in the loss.

DeSales does not return to action until Monday, February 9^th when they host local rival Muhlenberg College in a non-conference game beginning at 7:00 pm.

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