BOX SCORE

Center Valley, PA (January 9, 2010) – The backcourt duo of senior Darnell Braswell (Allentown, PA/William Allen) and junior Brian Hunter (Allentown, PA/Emmaus) combined for 33 of their 41 points in the second half on Saturday afternoon leading the DeSales University men's basketball team past Eastern University, 66-56, in a Freedom Conference game in Billera Hall.

The first half was a defensive slugfest as both teams played tremendous defense with Eastern (6-6, 2-1 Freedom) holding a one-point lead, 20-19, at the break. DeSales (9-4, 3-0 Freedom) scored the first six points of the game to lead 6-0 on three straight lay-ups before really turned up the pressure and frustrated the Bulldogs on offense. DeSales was up to the task on its defensive end however, forcing Eastern into just 36.4 percent shooting in the opening half.

The second half was all Hunter and Braswell. Hunter opened the second stanza with a three-pointer from the left baseline and Braswell scored the next four DSU points to give the Bulldogs a 26-24 advantage. The lead grew to as many as eight points on back-to-back three-pointers from sophomore Bob Zanneo (Philadelphia, PA/Father Judge) at the 9:55 mark.

Eastern rallied using a 14-2 run over the next 4:20 to take four-point lead, 47-43, before Braswell, Hunter, and senior Matt Zwetolitz (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) took over on the offensive end. Braswell stopped the spurt with a jumper in the lane and Zwetolitz tied the game at 47 with two freebies on the next possession.

After another defensive stop by the Bulldogs, Hunter came down the court in transition and drained a three-pointer at the top of the key to give the Bulldogs a 50-47 lead with 3:48 left. Derek Wright came out of a timeout with a jumper but Zwetolitz drove baseline on the Bulldogs offensive series and finished lay-up and converted a free throw to push the lead up to four with 2:59 to go.

Hunter then scored the next six points over the next three possessions to push DSU up eight with 1:22 to go when Eastern began to send DeSales to the line every possession hoping to get back in the game. Braswell answered the call at the line hitting six straight free throws over the final 72 seconds to provide the final margin.

Braswell finished with a game-high 22 points going along with eight rebounds on an efficient 8-of-16 shooting effort. Hunter was even more impressive from the field, hitting 7-of-8 shots for 19 points as the Bulldogs finished the game shooting 53.3 percent (24-for-45) from the field.

Wright had a team-high 14 points off the bench, while Martin Soaries and Alex Nelson each had 12 points for the Eagles in the loss.

The Bulldogs return to action on Wednesday, January 13th when they take to the road to face Misericordia University in a Freedom Conference game beginning at 8:00 pm.