Rosemont, PA (November 15, 2017) - The DeSales University men's basketball team shook off a slow start not scoring for the first 7:35 before rebounding for a 78-70 road win at Rosemont College in the season opener on Wednesday evening.

Four players reached double digits including sophomore Kweku Dawson-Amoah (Stewartsville, NJ) and senior Connor Jones (Hawley, PA) with 15 tallies each, senior Shaundell Fishburne (Southampton, NY) with 13 points off the bench, and junior Luke Connaghan (Warrington, PA) with 11 points.  Sophomore Ben Pratt (Allentown, PA) also played well of the bench with nine points and a team-high five assists.

Rosemont got a game-high 18 points from Jalil Myers and 14 points and seven rebounds from Mekhi Clemons.

The Bulldogs (1-0) opened the 2017-18 season a bit rusty and without a point for the first 7:35 of the game as Rosemont (0-1) built a 13-0 lead before a Fishburne 3 stopped the scoring drought.  That triple led a 20-4 run that put DSU up 20-17 at the 5:40 mark.  Fishburne had six and Dawson-Amoah tallied five during the run as DeSales held a 29-26 lead into the halftime locker room.

A back and forth start to the second-half saw the hosts take a 46-45 lead with 11:26 left to play when DeSales used a 19-6 run over the next six minutes to take a 64-52 lead with 5:31 to go.  Freshman Mike Bealer (Harleysville, PA) gave DSU a big lift during the game-clinching spurt with the first two 3's of his career and Connaghan capped off the run with his only three of the game.

The Ravens did chip away at the lead and pulled to within three (70-67) after a couple of DSU turnovers late in the game but Pratt iced the win from the free throw line hitting 6-for-6 from the charity stripe over the final 44 seconds.

After hitting just 40.9 percent from the field in the opening half, DSU shot 57.1 percent in the second-half and 84.0 percent from the free throw line for the game.  The Bulldogs also played excellent three-point line defense holding RC to just three triples on 19 attempts.

The Bulldogs are back in action over the weekend at the Lycoming College Tip-off Tournament opening up on day one vs. SUNY-Oneonta on Friday evening.