St. David's, PA (January 28, 2015) – Sophomore Brian Laird scored a career-high 26 points leading four players in double digits as the DeSales University men's basketball team shot 57.7 percent from the field in a 90-77 win at Eastern University in Freedom Conference action on Wednesday evening.
 
Laird shot 9-of-15 from the field and 6-for-11 from outside the arc and added six rebounds and four steals, also both career-highs, to lead the Bulldogs (13-5, 5-2 Freedom), who have won four straight.
 
Junior Cody Deal added 20 points, shooting 8-for-14, and freshman Aaron Burton and sophomore Kuity Slanger each had 13 points to round out four players in double figures.  Slanger added six rebounds and a career-high nine assists, while Burton pulled down a game-high nine rebounds in the win.  Senior Travis Bryan finished with six points, five rebounds, and five blocks.
 
Eastern was led by sophomore Shaquan Turk with 22 points and six rebounds and Malcolm Garrison added 14 points and Austin James totaled 12 points, all coming in the first-half.
 
This game had a frenetic pace to it from the very start as Slanger and Laird hit three's on DSU's first two possessions to open up a 6-0 lead.  The two teams went back-and-forth over the course of the opening twenty minutes that saw four ties and the Bulldogs score the final two points of the half to take a 44-43 lead into the locker room.
 
Laird was unconscious in the first-half, scoring 16 points, while James led the Eagles with 12 points.  The two teams combined for 14 three-pointers, seven each, in the opening stanza.
 
Both teams continued to battle back and forth thru the start of the second-half as the Bulldogs scored the first six points of the half to take a 50-43 lead.
 
EU countered cutting the lead down to two points several times before a 15-4 run over the span of 3:48 pushed a two-point lead into a 13-point advantage (71-58) with 10 minutes to go.  Deal had eight points during the spurt and Laird nailed another triple during the run.
 
EU's Malcolm Garrison scored eight quick points to cut the margin down to six points with 4:12 remaining but a put-back lay-up from Burton and a long three from Laird on the next possession pushed the lead back to 10 points with 2:34 left and the Bulldogs hit 6-for-6 from the charity stripe down the stretch to ice the win.
 
DSU opened the game shooting 68.2 percent in the first-half.  The Bulldogs cooled off a bit in the second-half, shooting 50 percent, but finished the game shooting 57.7 percent for the game.  DeSales also dominated the glass, owning a 40-29 edge on the glass.  DSU also went 11-for-21 (52.4 percent) from three-point land.
 
The Bulldogs return to action on Saturday, January 31^st when they host King's College in another important Freedom Conference tilt beginning at 8:00 pm.