Brooklyn, NY (December 30, 2015) – The DeSales University men's basketball team used a 21-4 run early in the second-half to erase a 16-point deficit and held on for a 78-75 win at Medger Evers College on Wednesday afternoon.
 
Three players finished in double digits including junior Brian Laird with a team-high 15 points, including 13 in the second-half.  Senior Cody Deal added 13 points and junior Kuity Slanger had 12 points in the win.  Sophomore Brandon Bridy and junior Ryan Callahan each had nine points.
 
MEC (4-7) was led by Matthew Lee with a game-high 33 points and Pablo Segura with 11 points.  Andron Thomas finished with eight points and a game-high 16 rebounds.
 
Trailing by 14 at the half, the Cougars scored the first bucket of the second-half before DeSales (7-3) took control using a 21-4 run over the span of 5:41 to turn a 16-point deficit into a one-point lead (55-54) with 12:23 still left to play.  Laird led the spurt with six points and Bridy added five, while sophomore Shaundell Fishburne put the exclamation point on the spurt with a three giving DSU the one-point lead.
 
Medger Evers tied the game at 59 a few minutes but the Bulldogs never trailed the rest of the way as back-to-back three's from Laird and Deal put DSU up seven and the lead swelled to eight points at the 7:44 mark.
 
DSU continued to lead by six with just 37 seconds left when Lee hit a three as MEC called timeout.  Out of the time Slanger was fouled and he missed the front end of a 1-and-1 but a three from MEC's Maurice Swaby II was off the mark at the buzzer as Slanger secured the rebound.
 
DSU had complete control of this game early opening up a 10-3 lead before the Cougars chipped away and led 29-27 with 5:36 to go in the half when the hosts used a 15-1 run to take a 16-point lead and led by 14 at the half before the Bulldogs second-half comeback.
 
DeSales took advantage of 20 Cougar turnovers scoring 20 points off those turnovers and shot 50.0 percent from the field for the game as compared to just 39.7 percent for Medger Evers.
 
Laird earns A.B.E. Doors and Windows player of the game keying the second-half run with six points and 13 second-half points.
 
The Bulldogs return to action on January 2^nd when they host Berkeley College (NY) in the first game of the Al Senavitis Memorial Tournament beginning at 2:00 pm.