Wilkes-Barre, PA (January 14, 2015) – King's College shot 61.5 percent from the field opening up a 19-point lead at the half and held off a second-half comeback by the Bulldogs handing the DeSales University men's basketball team a 73-60 loss on Wednesday evening in Scandlon Gymnasium.
Junior
Cody Deal led the Bulldogs (9-5, 1-2 Freedom) with 18 points, hitting three 3's, freshman
Aaron Burton added 12 points, sophomore
Kuity Slanger had 11 tallies and four assists, and senior
Travis Bryan finished with nine points and nine rebounds in the loss.
King's (9-5, 2-1 Freedom) was led by
John Fazzini and
Dan Rutecki with 13 points each,
Dan Borner added 11 points, and
Chris Fazzini totaled 10 points to round four scorers in double digits.
A three-pointer from Deal at the 16:01 mark tied the score at seven early before King's took control. The Monarchs used a 30-5 run over the next 11:56 taking a 37-12 lead. KC was on fire from the field during the spurt hitting 12-of-17 shots.
The Bulldogs did regroup scoring the final five points of the half cutting the margin down to 19 points (42-23) at the break. KC shot 61.5 percent from the field in the opening half and committed just one turnover, while DeSales converted 39.1 percent from the field and had 10 first-half miscues.
It was still a 20-point game at the 13:54 mark when DeSales made a run. An 11-2 run led by five points from Deal cut the margin down to 11 points (52-41) with 9:21 to play.
The two teams went back and forth over the next few minutes before the Bulldogs got the deficit down to single digits (65-56) with 4:43 to go. King's missed two free throws on the other end but grabbed the offensive rebound and capitalized with a three on the ensuing possession to push the lead back to 12 points and the Monarchs never looked back from there.
DSU finished the game shooting 39.6 percent from the field but committed 14 turnovers as compared to just five for the Monarchs. KC finished the game shooting 51.0 percent from the field.
The Bulldogs return to action on Saturday when they return home to host FDU-Florham in a Freedom Conference game beginning at 3:00 pm.
