BOX SCORE

Center Valley, PA (February 24, 2010) – Junior Lori Lidlow (Toms River, NJ/Toms River North) scored a game-high 21 points and senior Kaila Wiand (Royersford, PA/Spring-Ford) was awesome off the bench with a season-high 15 points as the DeSales University women's basketball rolled past Delaware Valley College, 75-51, in the semifinals of the Freedom Conference playoffs on Wednesday night in Billera Hall.

The Bulldogs (17-9 overall) advance to the title game for the third straight year and will be looking to make it a three-peat championship run, but they will have to do so on the road, traveling to Manhattanville College on Saturday for the championship game beginning at 1:00 pm in Kennedy Gymnasium. For those unable to attend, LIVE Stats and LIVE Video are expected to be provided. Those links will be on the DSU web site on game day.

On Wednesday night it was all Bulldogs as they shook off a poor shooting start to the game with some stifling defense to blow past the Aggies. DSU started the game shooting just 1-for-7 over the first six minutes but a four-point play from Lidlow at the 14:20 mark put DSU up 9-8 and an 11-0 run at the 9:53 mark of the half pushed that same one-point advantage up to 12 points (24-12) at the 7:29 mark with Lidlow leading the way with five points during the spurt.

Lidlow then picked up her second foul of the half around the six-minute mark and was forced to the bench and the Aggies started chipping away at the lead. Five straight points by DVC (17-9 overall) cut the margin down to seven, 28-21, until senior Kaila Wiand decided she had seen enough.

Wiand hit a running one-hander pushing the lead back to nine points and touched nothing but net on a deep three-pointer just 90 seconds later. Consecutive misses by both teams saw Wiand score again on a nice feed from sophomore Cherelle Simmons (Lancaster, PA/JP McCaskey) and Wiand immediately stole a pass at half court, dribbled into the lane and finished a three-point play from the line, scoring 10 of the Bulldogs final 11 points of the half, giving DeSales a comfortable 39-24 lead at the break.

In the second half Delaware Valley never got any closer than 13 points and the lead peaked at 28 points with 56 seconds left, as the Bulldogs cruised into the title game. DSU shook off the poor shooting at the start of the game to shoot 41.4 percent for the contest from the field. The Bulldogs canned 6-of-12 from three-point land and did a terrific job on the boards, out-rebounding the Aggies, 47-36. The Aggies shot just 24.1 percent from the field and were just 3-for-21 from outside the arc.

Lidlow scored her 21 points on just 11 shots and also dished out three assists. Wiand came off the bench to score 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting and added two assists and two steals, while Simmons finished with 12 points and nine boards. Senior Kelly Magrann (Sinking Spring, PA/Holy Name) finished with nine points, sophomore Hannah Smith (New Cumberland, PA/Cedar Cliff) stuffed the stat sheet with five points, seven rebounds, and six assists, and freshman Jessica Hoover (Emmaus, PA/Emmaus) came off the bench to contribute a strong six points and seven rebounds.

Freshman Emily Soper totaled 12 points and grabbed eight rebounds, and junior Brittany Battinieri also reached double figures with 10 points. Senior Kim Vennera added nine points as the Aggies hope to get a bid into the ECAC South Region Tournament set to be announced on Monday.