Center Valley, PA (February 14, 2017) - The DeSales University men's basketball erased a 22-point deficit down to six late but were unable to complete the comeback falling to Misericordia University, 91-83, in MAC Freedom action on Tuesday evening in Billera Hall.

The loss moves DeSales (17-7, 9-4 MAC Freedom) into third place alone with one game remaining in the regular season.  Delaware Valley and Eastern are both tied for first but just one game ahead of the Bulldogs who own the tiebreaker over both teams. The Bulldogs just need a win Saturday to earn a home playoff game. A DeSales win over Delaware Valley on Saturday clinches the #2 seed, a Bulldog win and an Eastern loss would clinch the #1 seed.  Eastern hosts Wilkes on Saturday and would clinch the top seed with a win.  A loss and DSU would be either the #3 or #4 seed pending other MAC Freedom outcomes on Saturday.

Senior Ryan Callahan led the scoring charge on Tuesday hitting for 17 points, while fellow senior Brian Laird added 14 points, including becoming the 27th player in team history to score 1,000 career points on two technical free throws late in the game.  Junior Connor Jones had 12 points and senior Kuity Slanger finished with eight points and seven rebounds.
 

Sr Brian Laird became the 27th member of the @DeSalesHoops 1000 Point Club w/ the second free throw in this video. #DeSalesU #d3h #DSUMHoops pic.twitter.com/3L7nMIzO4R

— DeSales Athletics (@DSUBulldogs) February 15, 2017

Misericordia (17-7, 8-5 MAC Freedom) saw five players reach double digits including Tony Harding with 24 points, Tre Fields with 21 points, Griffin Sponaugle and Jason Kenny each with 13 points, and Noah Rivera with 10 points.

It was a back and forth start of the game that saw neither team lead by more than four points over the first 16 minutes of the game before five straight points from the Cougars gave the visitors a 35-28 as they finished the half leading 40-33 at the break on a triple from Harding just before the buzzer.

The Cougar lead was eight (50-42) after a jumper from Jones early in the half before MU used a 22-8 run over the next seven minutes to take a commanding 22-point lead (72-50) with 8:20 left to play.

DeSales rallied scoring the next eight points to pull within 14 and had another mini 7-0 run later in the half to get as close as six points (77-71) with 2:38 left to play.

MU had the answer though as Fields and Alec Rodway each hit three-pointers deep in the shot clock on the next two possessions and after two Sponaugle free throws Misericordia had regained a 14-point advantage (85-71) with 1:11 to go ending DSU's comeback threat.

The Cougars torched the nets hitting 55.9 percent from the field and connected on 11-for-26 from the outside the arc.  Both teams took good care of the ball committing just 12 turnovers.  DeSales shot 51.9 percent in first-half but hit just 35.1 percent of its attempts over the final 20 minutes.

Callahan earns A.B.E. Doors and Windows Player of the Game honors in the loss.

The Bulldogs will wrap-up its regular season as mentioned above hosting Delaware Valley on Saturday in Billera Hall with tip set for 3:00 pm.