Dallas, PA (February 25, 2017) - The DeSales University men's basketball team erased a nine-point deficit late and had two possessions to tie the game late but came up short falling to Misericordia University, 78-75, in the MAC Freedom Championship game on Saturday afternoon in the Anderson Center.

The Bulldogs (18-9) will now await a possible ECAC Tournament bid on Monday to extend their season with an announcement of the ECAC field expected sometime late on Monday.

DSU was led by senior Ryan Callahan with a team-high 18 points and six rebounds and fellow senior Joseph Lococo with 16 points off the bench.  Junior Connor Jones added 10 points.

The Cougars (20-7) got a game-high 25 points from sophomore Jason Kenny.  Kenny also added six assists and five rebounds in the win.  Junior Tre Fields finished with 18 points and senior Griffin Sponaugle came off the bench to score 16 points, hitting five three-pointers.

DSU was down five early before a 15-6 run gave the Bulldogs their largest lead of the game (27-23) on a three from freshman Tracy Simsick. MU immediately answered the Bulldogs spurt with an 11-0 run to take a 34-27 lead and continued to lead by four (41-37) at the halftime break.

DSU tied it twice early in the second-half with the last time coing at 43-all at the 16:03 mark before 12-3 Misericordia run pushed the home team's advantage up to nine (55-46) with 10:35 to go.

DeSales chipped away over the next several minutes pulling within three points twice on a three from Lococo and lay-up from Callahan but Misericordia scored seven of the next eight points after the Callahan lay-in to reclaim its nine point advantage with 4:41 remaining.

Layups from senior Kuity Slanger, sophomore Luke Connaghan, and senior Brandon Bridy cut it down to a five point game with 2:43 to go and DSU was within four (73-69) with 59 ticks left after another Callahan lay-up.

DSU fouled Fields on the ensuing possession and he made just 1-of-2 and Callahan scored again to make it a 3-point game.  Kenny was fouled and missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and Lococo drove down the court scoring in the paint to pull the Bulldogs within one with 14 seconds now on the clock.

DeSales did not foul immediately and Misericordia broke the back court trap leaving Fields all alone on the break with just Jones back as he went for the exclamation point dunk and missed but luckily for the Cougars the rebound bounced right to him as he found Kenny out top who was fouled by Lococo with five seconds left.

Kenny hit both free throws and as Bridy brought the ball up court for the tying 3, Miseri fouled with 1.8 seconds left.  Bridy made the first and was instructed to miss the second looking for a tip-in but he made the second as well and the Bulldogs immediately fouled Kenny again.

He made two more free throws to make it a three-point game yet again.  Connaghan inbounded the ball with a length of the court pass that Kenny intercepted but he walked with the ball celebrating the win as time expired and the referees put 0.5 seconds left back on the clock.  DSU inbounded the ball in front of its bench and got it to Jones just inside half court but his last second attempt was well long as time expired giving the Cougars the win.

DSU shot much better from the field than MU, 49.2% as compared to just 42.6% for the Cougars, but hurt themselves at the free throw line converting just 54.5 percent (12-for-22). Misericordia also took advantage of DSU's 15 turnovers, scoring 15 points off the miscues, while DSU had just four points of MU's 13 turnovers.