Center Valley, PA (January 20, 2018) - The DeSales University men's basketball dominated the paint out-scoring Misericordia University, 46-32, in the lane and out-rebounding the Cougars 40-25, handing MU its first MAC Freedom loss of the season, 90-83, on Saturday afternoon in Billera Hall.

The Bulldogs (13-4, 4-2 MAC Freedom) got monster performances from sophomore Kweku Dawson-Amoah (Stewartsville, NJ), who recorded his third double-double of the season, with 25 points and a career-high tying 12 rebounds.  Junior Luke Connaghan (Warrington, PA) added a career-high 20 points, pulled down eight boards, and added five assists and senior Connor Jones (Hawley, PA) finished with 13 points and seven rebounds.  Sophomore Tracy Simsick (Harleysville, PA) finished with 11 points.

Misericordia (10-7, 5-1 MAC Freedom) got a game-high 39 points from junior Jason Kenny on 13-for-21 shooting and Tony Harding finished with 14 points in the loss.

No one led by more than four points thru the first 18 minutes of the first-half until a lay-up from senior Shaundell Fishburne (Southampton, NY) gave DSU a 38-32 lead as the Bulldogs enjoyed a 43-39 cushion into the halftime locker room.

Just a three-point lead at the 15:31 mark, DSU used an 11-0 run to take a 61-47 advantage, its largest of the game, at the 12:58 mark.  Jones started the spurt with five straight points and Simsick finished it with four straight.

The advantage was still double digits at the 8:57 mark when MU's Patrick Douthit and Kenny hit back-to-back 3's to pull MU within four (66-62) with 8:10 to go.

The lead was still four at the 4:11 mark when a Connaghan three-point play and Dawson-Amoah tip-in pushed the cushion back to nine points with 3:20 remaining but Kenny scored eight of the next 10 points in the game pull Misericordia within three at the 1:47 mark.

On the ensuing possession sophomore Julian Wing (Ridley Park, PA) came up huge hitting a short baseline jumper making it a two-possession game with 1:18 to go and after both teams traded free throws, the Bulldogs got a stop and Connaghan handed out the exclamation point with a fast break dunk with 20 ticks left posting the final tally.

DeSales was a very efficient, 54.2 percent from the field in the win and had more assists (19) than turnovers (17).  DSU also shot well from the line hitting 21-of-28.

The Bulldogs finish up the first-half of the MAC Freedom schedule on Wednesday when they travel to King's College with tip set for 6:00 pm.