The win, coupled with the FDU-Florham loss at King’s College, gives DSU the #3 seed heading into this week’s Freedom Conference playoffs. King’s College finishes as the #1 seed and will host the #4 seed FDU-Florham in one semifinal, while DeSales (18-7, 9-5 Freedom) will travel to Scranton (19-6, 10-4 Freedom) for a quick rematch in the other semifinal. The semifinal is on Wednesday, February 21st and is scheduled to begin at 8:00 pm in the Long Center.
Fast forwarding to the end of the game, the Royals used a 12-4 run to turn a seven-point deficit into a 63-62 lead with 1:44 on the clock. Freshman Darnell Braswell gave DSU the lead back when he drove the lane and was fouled, hitting both free throws to make it 64-63.
Following the free throws, Scranton was bringing the ball up the court when Walton stripped the Royal point guard and converted a lay-up to push the lead to three points. On the ensuing inbounds pass, Walton stepped in the passing lane and stole the pass and was immediately fouled on a lay-up attempt. He knocked down both free throws giving DeSales a 68-63 lead with 1:10 to play.
Three straight misses by the Royals saw Braswell control the rebound and he was fouled with 50 ticks left. Braswell knocked both freebies down and DSU led by seven. Over the next 27 seconds, DSU missed four straight free throws and Scranton converted two short jumpers with the second becoming a three-point play and all of a sudden the scoreboard read, 70-68, with 23 seconds left. Needing someone to step up and make pressure free throws head coach Scott Coval turned to the senior Walton and he responded hitting 5-of-6 down the stretch and the Bulldogs went home with its 10th straight win in Billera Hall.
The first half was all Scranton as they torched the nets at a 62.5 percent clip and hit 7-of-13 three-pointers to take a 42-29 lead into the locker room. Walton finished the half with five straight points including a trey at the buzzer to cut an 18-point deficit to just 13 points.
Early in the second half DSU chipped away at the lead and trailed by 10, 44-34, with 16:36 to go before a 10-0 run tied the game at 44 and a 10-2 run three minutes later gave DSU a seven point lead, 58-51, with 6:17 on the clock. Walton had four points during the first run and senior Steve Kriczky and junior Jamie McCloskey started the second run with back-to-back three-pointers.
Walton tallied his career-high 23 on 7-of-12 shooting and finished 7-of-9 from the free throw line. Sophomore Ed Lapinski also had a big game off the bench totaling 16 points and five rebounds on 8-of-12 shooting. Braswell finished 12 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
Junior Phil Stricker totaled 11 points and grabbed six rebounds moving him within 23 points of becoming the 20th player in men’s basketball history to score 1,000 points and fellow junior Eddie Ohlson dished out six assists moving him 20 helpers shy of setting the all-time career assist mark at DeSales.
Scranton was led by sophomore Paul Hawk with 18 points including four treys. Junior Tom Bicknell tallied 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds and sophomore Ryan Fitzpatrick totaled 15 points in the loss.
DESALES UNIVERSITY 75, UNIVERSITY OF SCRANTON 70 UNIVERSITY OF SCRANTON (19-6, 10-4 Conf.) Hawk, Paul 6-12 2-2 18; Bicknell, Tom 7-10 3-4 17; FitzPatrick, Ryan 6-12 0-0 15; Biagioli, Paul 3-9 1-1 8; O'Connell, Dan 3-6 1-1 8; Arnold, Randy 2-4 0-0 4; Cannon, Darren 0-2 0-0 0; Powell, James 0-1 0-1 0. Totals 27-56 7-9 70. DESALES UNIVERSITY (18-7, 9-5 Conf.) Sedale Walton 7-12 7-9 23; Ed Lapinski 8-12 0-0 16; Darnell Braswell 3-6 4-5 12; Phil Stricker 4-8 3-4 11; Steve Kriczky 1-2 2-2 5; Eddie Ohlson 1-4 1-6 3; Jamie McCloskey 1-1 0-0 3; Marvin Satchell 1-4 0-0 2; Matt Zwetolitz 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-50 17-26 75. University of Scranton........ 42 28 - 70 DeSales University............ 29 46 - 75 3-point goals-Scranton 9-23 (Hawk, Paul 4-8; FitzPatrick, Ryan 3-7; Biagioli, Paul 1-3; O'Connell, Dan 1-2; Cannon, Darren 0-2; Arnold, Randy 0-1), DeSales 6-13 (Darnell Braswell 2-3; Sedale Walton 2-4; Jamie McCloskey 1-1; Steve Kriczky 1-2; Matt Zwetolitz 0-1; Eddie Ohlson 0-2). Rebounds-Scranton 23 (Bicknell, Tom 8), DeSales 35 (Darnell Braswell 7). Assists-Scranton 15 (O'Connell, Dan 3; Biagioli, Paul 3; FitzPatrick, Ryan 3), DeSales 15 (Eddie Ohlson 6).