BOX SCORE

Center Valley, PA (January 23, 2010) – Senior Darnell Braswell (Allentown, PA/William Allen) scored a game-high 21 points and pulled down a game-high eight rebounds leading the DeSales University men's basketball team to its sixth straight win, 66-55 over King's College, to stay undefeated in Freedom Conference action this season.

DeSales (13-4, 7-0 Freedom) sits atop the Freedom Conference standings as the first half of the conference schedule comes to a close. King's (9-9, 5-2 Freedom) is all alone in second place with today's loss. The Bulldogs shot a very efficient 45.5 percent from the field; making nine three's and did an excellent job once again from the free throw line shooting 77.3 percent (17-of-22) in the win. King's took terrific care of the ball, committing just five turnovers, but shot just 36.2 percent from the field and just 47.1 percent from the free throw line in the loss.

The Monarchs jumped out to an 11-4 lead before DeSales used a 16-2 run over the span of six minutes to take a 20-13 advantage on three free throws from junior Brian Hunter (Allentown, PA/Emmaus). Braswell started the run with five quick points and sophomore Bob Zanneo (Philadelphia, PA/Father Judge) had a big part hitting two three-pointers to lead the way with six points.

King's chipped away and regained the lead at 27-26 before a three-pointer from Braswell with 1:11 left gave DSU its 29-27 lead heading into the locker room. The Bulldogs took just 18 shots in the first half but made nine of them, including five three-pointers. DSU also got 13 of the 29 first half points off its bench, led by Zanneo with six.

The second half was a classic grind it out Freedom Conference battle with neither team able to pull away thru the first portion of the half. King's had the lead (48-47) at the 7:17 mark when Hunter caught fire hitting a three-pointer from the left wing to push DSU up two and hit a running jumper in the lane on the next possession to give the Bulldogs a four-point advantage.

A three-pointer from Mike Wagner was answered on the other end by a Braswell three as DSU continued to lead by four with 3:55 to go. Hunter then came up big on defense blocking a shot in the lane and senior Matt Zwetolitz (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) was left all alone in the lane for a lay-up after consecutive misses from both teams to put DeSales up six with 2:23 left to play.

Kevin Conroy missed two free throws on King's next possession but a DSU turnover saw Kyle Stackhouse can a jumper on the other end as the lead was down to four. Senior Jim Malatesta (Warminster, PA/Archbishop Wood) was fouled on DSU's next possession and he made 1-of-2, making it a five-point game, but a Conroy turnover forced King's into fouling down the stretch and the Bulldogs were up to the task hitting 8-of-10 from the charity stripe over the final 56 seconds to ice the game.

Braswell shot 7-of-12 from the field in the win, while Hunter finished with 14 points, 11 of which came during crunch time in the second half. Zwetolitz also reached double figures with 10 points and pulled down six boards, while Zanneo led the charge off the bench with nine points and five rebounds.

Conroy finished with 18 points and six rebounds and Stackhouse totaled 14 points as the only two players in double digits for King's.

DSU returns to action on Monday when they travel cross-town to face Muhlenberg College in a non-conference game beginning at 7:00 pm.