Center Valley, PA (February 11, 2015) – Freshman Aaron Burton blocked a last second three-point attempt helping the DeSales University men's basketball team hang on for a 65-63 win over Wilkes University in Freedom Conference action on Wednesday evening in Billera Hall.
 
DSU (16-6, 8-3 Freedom) missed a wide open transition lay-up with 26 seconds left that would have essentially iced the game but after three timeouts and the Bulldogs giving their last foul to give Wilkes' (10-12, 5-6) had possession with 4.7 seconds left.  Out of the final timeout Alec Wizar took the inbounds at the top of the key, dribbled once to his left and let go on a contested three that was blocked by Burton on the left wing and senior Travis Bryan was there for the loose ball rebound as time expired.
 
Junior Cody Deal led the Bulldogs with a game-high 19 points, while sophomore Ryan Callahan (16 points) and Burton (11 points) also reached double digits.  Bryan finished with a game-high 10 rebounds and sophomore Kuity Slanger flirted with his first career double-double grabbing eight rebounds and dishing out eight assists in the win.
 
Wilkes saw five players reach double figures including Zachary Brunner with a team-high 14 points, Steve Stravinski with 12 points, and Wizar, Cameron Hinkel, and Jeremy Hartman with 10 points each.
 
DeSales looked they were going to win this game going away early as Callahan and Slanger connected on an alley-oop slam dunk and a no-look dunk in transition over the first six minutes forcing a second timeout from Wilkes with the Bulldogs holding a commanding 19-7 lead.
 
It was still a 12-point lead with 9:05 left in the opening half when Wilkes chipped away and eventually pulled within one (34-33) before a three from senior Derek Dalition and a lay-up at the halftime buzzer also by Dalition gave DeSales a 41-35 halftime lead.
 
The lead remained six early before both teams went scoreless for a two minute stretch before Wilkes scored seven straight points to take a 44-43 lead with 16:21 left to play.
 
The game went back and forth over the next several minutes with eight lead changes before seven straight points from Deal, including a three, sparked a 10-0 run, that Slanger put the exclamation point on a with a three at the end of the shot clock giving DSU a 61-53 lead with 5:30 remaining.
 
It was a seven point lead with 3:01 to go before a jumper from Hinkel and a three-point play from Stavinski made it 65-63 with 1:48 left.  A three-point miss from Laird gave Wilkes possession with 1:13 left but a wide open jumper from the foul line from Tyler Jackson was long as Bryan grabbed the rebound and the outlet found a streaking Laird all alone but his lay-up just rolled off the front rim setting up the final possession for the Colonels.
 
The Bulldogs finished the game shooting 46.4 percent from the field.  DSU did an excellent job only turning the ball over a season-low eight times, while handing out 19 assists on 26 made baskets in the win.  Neither team missed a free throw as Wilkes went 12-for-12 from the charity stripe and DeSales hit all six of its attempts.
 
DeSales is now tied for second-place with Delaware Valley College (an overtime loser at Misericordia on Wednesday) and is a game behind Misericordia University with three games left in the Freedom Conference regular season.  DSU controls its own destiny in search of at least one home playoff game, needing just to win its final three games to finish no worse than the second seed.  Three wins and one Misericordia loss would give the Bulldogs the #1 seed and home court advantage throughout the playoffs as DeSales owns the tiebreaker over both Delaware Valley and Misericordia.
 
The Bulldogs next task is on Saturday when they travel to FDU-Florham with tip set for 3:00 pm at the Ferguson Recreation Center.