Wilkes-Barre, PA (January 29, 2016) – Junior
Brian Laird scored a career-high 29 points leading the DeSales University men's basketball team past King's College, 88-81, in MAC Freedom action on Saturday afternoon in Scandlon Gymnasium.
Laird shot 10-for-12 from the field and hit five three-pointers. Senior
Cody Deal added 14 points, junior
Kuity Slanger finished with 12 points, and sophomore
Connor Jones finished with 11 points in the win. Junior
Brandon Bridy finished with a game-high eight assists for the Bulldogs (14-5, 6-2 MAC Freedom).
Dan Rutecki led Monarchs (7-11, 2-6 MAC Freedom) with 25 points,
Chris Fazzini totaled 23 points,
Tom Heston finished with 11 points, and
Connor Hughes had 10 points in the loss.
King's led from the very start and continued to lead by five (29-24) at the six minute mark of the opening half when the Bulldogs used a 19-4 run to end the half taking a 43-33 lead into the locker rooms. Deal led the charge with nine points during the spurt.
DSU stayed in control to start the second-half opening up its largest advantage of the game (53-47) at the 15:56 mark. The Monarchs made a few mini runs at the lead mid-way thru the half but the Bulldogs remained in control and up 11 points (76-65) with 5:31 remaining.
King's had one more spurt left using an11-3 run to cut the margin down to three-points with 1:46 to go. After a missed lay-up by Bridy, King's called timeout but Heston missed a floater from point blank range and Laird grabbed the rebound and DSU called timeout.
On the ensuing possession Bridy drove the lane and found Deal wide open in the corner as he lot loose on a three-pointer that hit nothing but cotton giving the Bulldogs a six point edge and Laird and junior
Ryan Callahan hit 6-for-6 from the line over the final 29 seconds to ice the game.
DeSales shot 57.1 percent from the field in the win including 57.9 percent (11-for-19) from outside the arc.
Laird earns
A.B.E. Doors and Windows Player of the Game honors coming out of a three-game shooting slump in a big way to hit 10-of-12 shots for the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs return to action on Wednesday, February 3
rd when they host Misericordia University in a MAC Freedom game beginning at 8:00 pm.