Center Valley, PA (February 4, 2017) - Senior Brian Laird came alive with a game-high 21 points and fellow senior Ryan Callahan registered a double-double as the DeSales University men's basketball team stayed one game behind in the MAC Freedom standings with a 76-66 win over FDU-Florham on Saturday afternoon in Billera Hall.

Laird finished with three 3's and shot 7-for-13 from the field hitting for 20+ for the the third time season.  Callahan finished with first double-double of the season (12 points, 10 rebounds) and added three blocks, sophomore Luke Connaghan had 12 points, junior Connor Jones finished with 13 points off the pine, and senior Kuity Slanger had six assists and seven rebounds in the win.

FDU (6-14, 3-7 MAC Freedom) got 21 points from Anthony Mitchell, 14 points and seven rebounds from Donte Ali, and 10 points from Darren Davy in the loss.

DeSales (15-6, 7-3 MAC Freedom) were out quickly opening up a 16-9 lead before 10 straight points from the Devils gave FDU a 19-16 lead.  FDU led nearly the rest of the way in the first-half clingint to a 39-37 advantage at the halftime break after shooting 51.6 percent from the field in the opening half.

FDU continued to lead by five (55-50) when the Bulldogs came alive using a 20-4 run to take a 70-59 lead with 3:12 to go and never looked back from there.  Six straight points from senior Brandon Bridy started the run, followed by four straight from Laird, and a baseline dunk from Connaghan pushed DSU up five (62-57).  Sophomore Steven Ciotti followed with an acrobatic lay-up and Callahan got into the act with four of the next six DeSales points to finish off the Devils.

DSU shot 52 percent in the second-half and held the Devils to just 36.7 percent shooting over the final 20 minutes.  DeSales dominated the paint out-scoring Florham, 42-24, inside the lane.  DSU's bench also out-scored FDU's, 25-10, for the game.

The Bulldogs are back in action on Wednesday when they travel to up to Wilkes University for an important MAC Freedom tilt beginning at 8:00 pm.