Doylestown, PA (February 17, 2018) - Senior Connor Jones (Hawley, PA) hit a corner 3 with 18 seconds left lifting the DeSales University men's basketball team past Delaware Valley University, 69-67, in the MAC Freedom regular season finale on Saturday afternoon.

The Bulldogs (19-6, 10-4 MAC Freedom) finish the regular season in a 3-way tie for second place with Eastern and Misericordia and after the tiebreakers are implemented finish as the #3 seed in next week's MAC Freedom postseason tournament.  Eastern is the #2 seed as the Bulldogs will travel to St. David's for the semifinal round on Wednesday evening with game time set for 7:00 pm.  Wilkes University earns the top seed and will host the #4 seed, Misericordia University, in the other semifinal on Wednesday.

Four Bulldogs were in double digits on Saturday led by sophomore Tracy Simsick (Harleysville, PA) with 14 points, 11 in the first-half.  Sophomore Kweku Dawson-Amoah (Stewartsville, NJ) had his sixth double-double of the year with 13 points and 12 rebounds, junior Luke Connaghan (Warrington, PA) had 12 points, and Jones finished one rebound shy of a double-double with 10 points and nine boards.  Senior Steven Ciotti (Yardley, PA) handed out seven assists in the win.

The Aggies (5-20, 4-10 MAC Freedom) got a game-high 21 points from Austin Stoeckel, 16 points off the bench from Lybrant Robinson, and 10 tallies from Alex Matsinye.  Andre Butler pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds.

This game was a back and forth battle from the very start featuring a total of seven ties and 13 lead changes throughout.  The Aggies by six (26-20) at the 7:57 mark of the first-half before an 11-0 run Bulldog run made it 31-26 DeSales with 4:38 to go in the half.  DVU finished the half out-scoring the Bulldogs, 10-5, to tie the score at 36 at the break.

DeSales took control in the second-half and led by as many as seven points (50-43) at the 12:52 mark before an 8-0 Aggie run gave the host's a 51-50 lead with 10:47 to go.

From there it was back and forth over the next several minutes as the score was tied for the last time at 65 with 2:18 left.

After both teams had two misses opportunities Simsick was fouled with 51 seconds left and hit 1-of-2 free throws to give DSU a 66-65 lead.  DVU's Joe Russell answered with a lay-up staking the Aggies to a 67-66 advantage as DSU called timeout with 33 ticks left.

Out of the time Connaghan got the ball on the right wing, drove baseline and skipped a pass to Jones who was wide open in the corner and knocked down his second three of the game for the win.  Del. Val. had a last second three attempt fell well short as time expired.

DeSales did a terrific job cashing in at the foul line hitting 17-of-22 (77.3 percent) in the win.  The Bulldogs overcame a tough shooting second-half, hitting just 31.0 percent in the final twenty minutes and 37.9 percent for the game.