F&M Shoots Down DeSales, 70-60, in Elite Eight

Senior Ed Lapinski scored a game-high 23 points in his final collegiate game on Saturday in the NCAA Elite Eight.

Box Score

BOX SCORE

Lancaster, PA (March 14, 2009) – The DeSales University men's basketball team saw its dream season come to an end as Franklin & Marshall College shot 48.1 percent from the field and held on down the stretch eliminating the Bulldogs, 70-60, in the Elite Eight round of the NCAA Division III Tournament on Saturday evening in the Mayser Center.

The Bulldogs finish the year with a school-record 25 wins and just six losses, while the Dips improve to 26-5 and advance to next weekend's Final Four in Salem, VA.

Saturday was a terrific college basketball game thanks in large part to a strong traveling contingency of DSU fans led by two busloads of Bulldog students. The first four and a half minutes of the game was offensive perfection for both teams as they each hit shot after shot from the field and after back-to-back layups from seniors Matt Zwetolitz (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) and Ed Lapinski (Red Hill, PA/Upper Perkiomen), the game was tied at 14 entering the first media timeout.

Out of the media timeout, someone put a lid on the Bulldogs basket and DeSales suffered thru a stretch of nine minutes and forty seconds without a field before junior Jim Malatesta (Warminster, PA/Archbishop Wood) hit a driving lay-up to end the drought and pull DSU within 12 at 30-18. Trailing by 15 at the two minute mark both teams went scoreless for the rest of the half as the host Diplomats enjoyed a 37-22 advantage.

F&M shot 51.7 percent from the field in the opening, while the Bulldogs converted just 36.0 percent and also hurt themselves with nine turnovers as compared to just five for Franklin & Marshall.

The Bulldogs fought hard in the second half. After a three-pointer from Anthony Brooks early in the half made it an 18-point game, DeSales went on a 10-0 run over the next three and a half minutes to pull within eight at the 15:13 mark. Lapinski led the charge with seven points and sophomore Brian Hunter (Allentown, PA/Emmaus) added a triple during the spurt.

The game went back and forth over the next few minutes before consecutive three-pointers from Georgio Milligan and Clay Scovill pushed the lead up to 15 points, 56-41, with 9:55 remaining in the game. A lay-up from Lapinski, one free throw from Zwetolitz, and a jumper from junior Darnell Braswell (Allentown, PA/William Allen) quickly pushed the deficit down to 10 points as the Bulldogs were poised to make a late charge.

Another jumper from Braswell was followed by a Lapinski lay-up and two Braswell free throws and the lead was trimmed to seven points with 3:49 to go.

Braswell came up with a steal on the other end and dribbled the length of the court in transition, pulled up for an open three-pointer just left of the top of the key, but his shot rimmed out. After one free throw from Milligan, Lapinski scored inside yet again to cut the lead down to six points, but Milligan had the answer yet again hitting a big three-pointer on the right wing to push the lead to nine points with two minutes to go and sealed the victory with another jumper and one free throw on each of the next two possessions as time ran out on DeSales.

DeSales too much better care of the ball in the second half committing just three turnovers and shot 44.4 percent from the field but was just 4-for-20 three-point land in the game. The Diplomats finished the game shooting 48.1 percent and hit 6-of-16 three-point attempts on the night.

Lapinski was outstanding in his final collegiate game, pouring in a game-high 23 points on 11-of-15 shooting and grabbing six rebounds. Braswell also played well, finishing with 16 points and seven boards for the Bulldogs.

Milligan finished with 21 points and four steals, James McNally added 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting, Scovill totaled 12 points and Mike Baker pulled down a game-high 10 boards in the win.

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