Center Valley, PA (January 4, 2017) - Senior Brian Laird became DSU's all-time leader in three-pointers made as the DeSales University men's basketball team rolled past Eastern University, 87-54, in the MAC Freedom opener for both teams on Wednesday evening in Billera Hall.

Laird hit four 3's and totaled 14 points giving him 195 career treys surpassing current assistant coach Darnell Braswell who hit 192 in his career.  Fellow senior Kuity Slanger added 15 points and four assists and junior Connor Jones added 14 points and eight rebounds in the win.  Senior Brandon Bridy finished with a career-high 11 boards, while senior Ryan Callahan had eight points, six rebounds, four assists, and two blocks.

Eastern (5-7, 0-1 MAC Freedom) got a double-double (13 points, 10 rebounds) from Victor Pena in the loss.

Both teams couldn't buy a bucket to start the game as each squad went scoreless over the first four minutes of the game.  The lid finally came off for the Bulldogs (9-3, 1-0 MAC Freedom) as they raced out to a 25-4 advantage at the 6:41 mark of the first-half as the Eagles opened the game just 2-for-22 from the field.

EU cut the margin down 17 points points at the halftime break finishing the half hitting 8-of-10 from the field but it was all Bulldogs in the second half as Eastern shot just 29.4 percent over the final 20 minutes and DeSales led by as many as 37 points with more than eight minutes left before the final margin was posted.

DeSales did a terrific job of taking care the ball committing just eight turnovers for the game.  DSU shot 46.7 percent from the field and hit 8-of-17 from outside the arc in the win.

The Bulldogs are right back to action on Saturday when they travel to Delaware Valley University for another MAC Freedom game set to begin at 3:00 pm.