Glenside, PA (November 29, 2017) - The DeSales University men's basketball team used a 27-6 run early in the second-half to erase a nine-point halftime deficit and hold off a late Arcadia rally in a 69-65 win in non-conference action on Wednesday evening.

Four players reached double digits including sophomore Tracy Simsick (Harleysville, PA) with a team-high 14 points, sophomore Kweku Dawson-Amoah (Stewartsville, NJ) with 13 points, and junior Luke Connaghan (Warrington, PA) and senior Connor Jones (Hawley, PA) with 12 tallies each.  Jones added eight rebounds.

Arcadia (3-3) got 18 points from Phil Pierfy and Brandon Thompson finished with 14 points in the loss.

After shooting just 28.6 percent in the first-half the Bulldogs (5-1) found themselves down by nine at the half as AU hit 6-of-12 from outside the arc over the first twenty minutes.

After swapping buckets early, DSU still trailed by nine (33-24) at the 18:14 mark before a 27-6 run over the next seven minutes gave the Bulldogs a 51-39 advantage.

Connaghan and Dawson-Amoah opened the spurt with lay-ups before Simsick hit for 10 of the next 18 points and senior Shaundell Fishburne (Southampton, NY) capped the run with a three-pointer.

Arcadia refused to go away chipping away at the lead and pulling to within two on several occassions but DeSales answered every run at the lead and continued to lead by six (65-59) with 1:48 to go.

The Knights rallied scoring the next six points over the next 1:06 to tie the game at 65 with 42 seconds left.

DSU had possession and after a loose ball created a broken play, senior Steven Ciotti (Yardley, PA) drove the lane and converted a lay-up to give the Bulldogs a 67-65 advantage with 15.9 seconds left.

Out of the timeout, AU's Da'Kquan Davis drove the lane and went up for a short jumper but sophomore Julian Wing (Ridley Park, PA) rotated over and came out of nowhere to block the shot out to half court where he hustled after the rebound and threw it ahead to a streaking Connaghan who laid the ball in at the buzzer to post the final tally.

After shooting just 28.6 percent in the first-half, DSU torched the second-half nets at a 60.0 percent clip.  The Bulldogs also continued to play lockdown defense holding AU to just 36.8 percent shooting and DeSales controlled the glass out-rebounding the Knights, 38-31.

The Bulldogs are off this weekend before returning to action on Monday traveling to PSU-Harrisburg for another non-conference meeting beginning at 7:00 pm.