Center Valley, PA (January 20, 2016) – The DeSales University men's basketball held off a late rally from Wilkes University recording a 73-72 win over the Colonels running its win streak to five straight in MAC Freedom action in Billera Hall on Wednesday evening.
 
Senior Cody Deal, who was honored before the game for scoring his 1,000^th career points in early January, led the Bulldogs (12-4, 4-1 MAC Freedom) with a game-high 19 points, while junior Kuity Slanger and sophomore Brandon Bridy each had 10 points in the win.  Junior Ryan Callahan finished with nine points and sophomore Connor Jones led the bench with eight points.
 
Wilkes (6-10, 1-4 MAC Freedom) saw four players reach double digits including Marcus Robinson with 18 points, Alec Wizar with 17 points, Steve Stravinski with 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Zachary Brunner with 11 points.
 
Trailing 56-53 at the 10-minute mark DeSales used a 16-6 run to take a 69-62 lead with 3:01 left to play on a jumper from Deal.  Wilkes quickly cut six points off the lead as Stravinski was fouled on three-pointer and canned all three freebies and after an empty possession for the Bulldogs Stravinski was left alone at the top of the key and he drained a three to make it a one-point game (69-68) with 1:36 left to play.
 
Deal was long on a lay-up on the next possession but the Colonels missed consecutive jumpers as the Bulldogs secured the rebound and Bridy was fouled.  He knocked down both free throws making it a three-point game but Robinson was fouled on the ensuing drive and hit two free throws with 16 ticks left making it a one-point game again.
 
Bridy was again fouled with 15 seconds left and again made both charity tosses giving DSU a 73-70 lead.  After Wizar was off the mark on a three Robinson was fouled on a three attempt after gathering the long rebound.  He calmly hit nothing but net on the first two free throws but his second was off the back rim and freshman Luke Connaghan pulled down the rebound and was fouled.
 
Connaghan was off on both freebies and Wilkes called timeout after securing the board with 1.3 seconds left.  After multiple timeouts by both teams a long inbounds pass found Quinlin Parsons who caught the ball mid-air and passed to Robinson who was all alone at the foul line but his quick shot attempt before the buzzer was well short as time expired on the Colonels.
 
The first-half was a back-and-forth battle that featured four ties and two lead changes.  DSU led by as many as seven twice in the first-half before Wilkes rallied to take a 39-36 lead before a three from sophomore Shaundell Fishburne tied the game at the half on a three with five seconds left.
 
DSU finished the game with just seven turnovers as compared to 19 for the Colonels as the Bulldogs enjoyed a 26-5 advantage in points off turnovers.  DeSales shot 47.1 percent from the field in the win and held Wilkes to just 3-for-16 from outside the arc in the second-half.  DSU is now 4-0 in games decided by three points or less this season.
 
Deal earns A.B.E. Doors and Windows Player of the Game honors scoring 19 points to lead all scorers.
 
The Bulldogs are scheduled to play Delaware Valley University on Saturday but that game is likely to be moved to another day with the approaching snow forecast for the weekend. Stay tuned for details on a new date and time on Thursday afternoon on the DeSales athletics web site.