Center Valley, PA (January 31, 2018) - The DeSales University men's basketball team shook off a sluggish first-half by out-scoring Manhattanville College, 38-21, in the second-half in a 64-56 win over the Valiants in MAC Freedom action on Wednesday evening in Billera Hall.

Sophomore Tracy Simsick (Harleysville, PA) stuffed the stat sheet in the win finishing with 14 points, six rebounds, five assists, four steals, and three blocks to lead the Bulldogs (16-4, 7-2 MAC Freedom).  Senior Connor Jones (Hawley, PA) added 11 points and eight boards, while junior Luke Connaghan (Warrington, PA) and sophomore Kweku Dawson-Amoah (Stewartsville, NJ) each finished with nine points.

Manhattanville (7-13, 1-8 MAC Freedom) was led by Alex Tuci who recorded a double-double with 19 points and 10 boards, while Sean Smith added 11 tallies in the loss.

The Bulldogs scored the first five points of the game and continued to lead by one (17-16) with 7:59 left in the opening half when DSU got into foul trouble and the Valiants took advantage using a 19-6 run to take a 35-23 lead before freshman Mike Bealer (Harleysville, PA) capped the first-half with DSU's only three of the game to make it a nine-point game (35-26) at the half.

DeSales wasted no time erasing the deficit in the second-half scoring the first 10 points of the second-half to take a 36-35 lead at the 16:40 mark.

It was a tight game the rest of the half with DeSales clinging to that one-point lead (54-53) with 4:55 left to play.  Jones hit two free throws on DSU's next possession and after a defensive stop and consecutive turnovers from both teams, Dawson-Amoah scored in the paint to give the Bulldogs a five point lead (58-53) with 3:17 to go.

One free throw from senior James Smith (Hillsborough, NJ) after a stop on the defensive end made it a six-point game but three straight free throws across two possessions from the Valiants made it a one-score game with 1:25 left.  Out of time, the Bulldogs turned it over but an illegal screen by Tuci gave the ball back to DeSales and senior Steven Ciotti (Yardley, PA) clinched the win with a driving lay-up as the shot clock was winding down pushing DeSales up 61-56 with 36 seconds left and DSU hit 3-of-4 from the line to ice the victory.

After shooting just 39.3 percent in the opening half, DeSales hit 60.9 percent from the field in the second-half.  The Bulldogs also held the Valiants to just 28.0 percent shooting over the final twenty minutes.

DeSales is back in action on Saturday when they travel to FDU-Florham for another MAC Freedom game set to begin at 3:00 pm.