BOX SCORE

Center Valley, PA (February 27, 2010) – Senior Darnell Braswell (Allentown, PA/William Allen) totaled 27 points, nine rebounds, five assists, and three steals and the DeSales University men's basketball team used a strong defensive effort in the second half on Saturday afternoon to win its second straight Freedom Conference Championship in come-from-behind fashion, 69-61, in Billera Hall.

The Bulldogs (22-5 overall) are now officially invited into the NCAA Tournament, earning the Freedom Conference's automatic bid into the “Big Dance”. The NCAA pairings will be announced on Monday morning as DeSales hopes to recapture some of that NCAA Tournament magic they had last year when they advanced all the to the “Elite Eight”, just one game short of the “Final Four”.

On Saturday, the Bulldogs opened strong scoring the first four points but the Cougars (16-11 overall) answered with a 12-2 run to take a 12-6 lead at the 15:08 mark. Seven straight points put DSU ahead by one as both teams settled into the flow of the game.

A three-pointer from sophomore Bob Zanneo (Philadelphia, PA/Father Judge) tied the score at 19, but DeSales went cold from there as Misericordia opened up a 27-19 lead with the Bulldogs going scoreless over a span of almost five minutes. MU continued to lead by seven points with 2:36 left but Braswell finished the half with four straight free throws, pulling DSU within three at the break (33-30).

Misericordia came out firing in the second half, scoring the first six points to take its largest lead of the game, 39-30, at the 18:44 mark. After a timeout from head coach #Scott Coval#, the Bulldogs clamped down on defense and senior Matt Zwetolitz (Whitehall, PA/Whitehall) started a 15-4 run over the next six minutes that turned a nine-point deficit into a two-point lead, 45-43.

During the run Zwetolitz had the first five points and junior Brian Hunter (Allentown, PA/Emmaus) and Braswell each had four points including an acrobatic reverse lay-up from Hunter on the break off a pass from Braswell that tied the game at 43.

After Misericordia briefly regained the lead, 46-45, DSU used a 10-0 run over the next five minutes to pull away from the Cougars. Braswell started this run with a lay-up, senior Jim Malatesta (Warminster, PA/Archbishop Wood) hit a driving lay-up, senior Charles Princiotto (Woodcliff Lake, NJ/Pascack Hills) hit a huge three-pointer with one second left on the shot clock, and Braswell finished a three-point play on the fast break with a pretty finger roll right at the front of the rim.

The lead grew to 10 points as freshman Brett Moyer (Souderton, PA/Christopher Dock) hit two big shots, one a jumper from right baseline and another a nice lay-up finish off a pretty feed from Braswell at the 2:03 mark. A couple of Cougar three-pointers got MU within six and after a missed free throw from Princiotto with 51 seconds left, Moyer was again there, grabbing a big offensive rebound and DeSales hit 6-of-10 charity tosses over the final 51 seconds to seal the win.

Braswell stuffed the stat sheet with team-highs in points, rebounds, assists, and steals, scoring his 27 tallies with a strong effort from the free throw line (12-of-16), to earn Freedom Conference Playoffs Most Valuable Player honors.

Zwetolitz and Malatesta each came up big with 10 points each, while Hunter finished with six points, all in the second half. Moyer totaled four points and five rebounds and Zanneo added five points. Princiotto had three points and three assists in the win.

Dom Del Prete led the Cougars with 15 points and Robbie Johnson added 14 points as the lone players in double digits.