BOX SCORE (Consolation Game)

BOX SCORE (Championship Game)

Center Valley, PA (January 3, 2011) – The DeSales University men's basketball team shot a season-low 35.6 percent from the field and just 28.6 percent from three-point land suffering a 68-58 setback to Albright College in the championship game of the Casa Mia Holiday Tournament on Monday evening in Billera Hall.

Junior Bob Zanneo was the lone exception to the tough shooting night, going 7-for-11, to lead the Bulldogs (7-4 overall) with 19 points. Sophomore Brett Moyer added 12 points and senior Brian Hunter finished with seven points and a game-high six assists. Moyer and Hunter were each named to the All-Tournament Team after registering double-doubles in the opening round win yesterday.

Senior Matt Ashcroft was named the Tournament's Most Valuable Player, pouring in a game-high 21 points and pulling down nine rebounds in the championship game win. Junior Derek Hall had 19 points and nine rebounds and junior Shane Irwin totaled 11 points and eight rebounds. Senior Zac Schaeffer finished with nine points but earned All-Tournament honors after leading AC (9-4 overall) with 23 points in the opening round win over Ursinus.

Albright took the lead at 7-6 on a lay-up from Hall at the 15:59 mark of the first half and never trailed the rest of the game. DeSales tied the game once, at 23 all with 3:21 to go, but Hall answered the lone tie with a three on the very next possession and the Bulldogs never got any closer than four points a few times and three points once in the second half.

Following the tie at 23, Hall's triple ignited a half-ending 8-0 run as the Lions enjoyed a 31-23 lead into the locker room. Albright's starting five accounted for all 31 of the Lion's first-half points as AC shot 41.4% as compared to just 38.5% for the Bulldogs.

DeSales chipped away several times at the Lion lead in the second half pulling within five points at the 15:32 mark on a three from Zanneo, six points at the 12:15 mark on a lay-up from Moyer, and five points again after two Moyer free throws at the 10:05 mark.

Each time Albright quickly pushed the lead back to double digits and led 54-44 before DeSales made one final run. Six straight free throws over a span of three minutes made it a four-point game before a Jeff Sparrow jumper made it a six-point game.

Zanneo canned a fall-away three-pointer on the next possession to get DeSales within three with 3:42 left but an offensive rebound on the other end by Hall sent him to the line where he connected on both freebies pushing the margin back to five points.

The Bulldogs had four straight chances to pull within one possession over the next minute but all four times they were unable to capitalize and Albright eventually made 6-for-8 from the line over the final two minutes to ice the game.

The 35.6 percent shooting night marks just the second time this season DeSales has shot under 40%, the other coming in a last second loss at Kean.

In the consolation game, Ursinus broke open a close game with an 18-2 run to end the first half and held off a late rally from NY City Tech in the second half for a 77-62 win. Jon Ward led the Bears with 22 points and pulled down seven rebounds to earn All-Tournament honors, while Nathaniel Young finished with a tournament high 30 points in the loss for the Yellow Jackets to also earn All-Tournament honors.

The Bulldogs will return to action in just two days when they host one of its local rivals, Muhlenberg College, in a non-conference game beginning at 7:00 pm.