The Bulldogs (9-2 overall) advance to play The College of New Jersey (8-5 overall), who defeated St. Mary’s College (MD – 4-6 overall), 93-73, in the other opening round game. Immaculata (1-8 overall) will play St. Mary’s in the consolation game on Saturday afternoon. Game times are 2:00 pm for the consolation game and 4:00 pm for the championship.
Leading by two points with 1:03 to play freshman Darnell Braswell (Allentown, PA/William Allen) made perhaps the biggest shot of the night, dribbling thru the lane and converting on a soft floater from about eight feet to give DSU a four-point edge, 70-66, and clinching the victory.
DSU had complete control of this game in the first half leading by 16 points on three separate occasions before the Mighty Macs caught fire. Trailing 30-14 at the 8:04 mark, IU went on a 15-6 run to cut the margin to five points before a trey by sophomore Ed Lapinski (Red Hill, PA/Upper Perkiomen) with 23 seconds left pushed the Bulldog lead to eight (40-32) as both teams headed to the locker room.
DSU continued to lead by a healthy margin, seven points (51-44), early in the second half before Immaculata took control once again. A 13-6 run tied the game at 57 on a three-pointer from Julius Lopez with 10:24 and the game went back and forth over the next five minutes as both teams settled for a tie at 66 with 5:32 to go.
Over the next three and a half minutes both teams struggled to find the bottom of the net with the only two points coming off two Stricker free throws on separate possessions setting up the clinching floater from Braswell with 1:03 left on the clock.
Stricker shot 13-of-16 from the field to record his career-high. Senior Sedale Walton (Levittown, PA/Harry S. Truman) had a strong game off the bench with nine points, Braswell finished with four points, a team and season-high nine rebounds and four assists and junior Eddie Ohlson (Allentown, PA/Parkland) handed out a game-high nine assists.
Kyle Finklea was almost unstoppable for the Mighty Macs, scoring a team-high 27 points and grabbing eight rebounds. Scott Marston came off the bench to score 16 points and grab seven boards, while Lopez finished with 13 points in the loss.
In the second game, TCNJ used a 19-2 run midway thru the first half pushing a three-point margin into a 20-point lead and the Lions never looked back. TCNJ torched the nets shooting 56.7 percent from the field, 61.1 percent from three-point land and 84.8 percent from the charity stripe.
Jeff Warner led the way with a game-high 26 points including a 6-for-6 performance from outside the arc off the bench. Brian Halligan had 20 points and pulled down seven boards and Mark Aziz tallied 21 points and also totaled seven rebounds. Four players reached double digits for the Seahawks including Alex Irmer with 19 points, Valdez Preston with 17 points, Tyson Lesesne with 14 points and Mike Smelkinson with 13 points.
DESALES UNIVERSITY 73, IMMACULATA UNIVERSITY 68 IMMACULATA UNIVERSITY (1-8 overall) Kyle Finklea 12-24 2-3 27; Scott Marston 6-7 4-6 16; Julius Lopez 5-15 0-0 13; Kris Behm 3-10 0-0 6; Jeff DeSantis 1-2 0-0 2; Chris Christopher 1-4 0-1 2; Joe Slavick 1-3 0-0 2; Robert Jones' 0-1 0-1 0. Totals 29-66 6-11 68. DESALES UNIVERSITY (9-2 overall) Phil Stricker 13-16 5-9 31; Sedale Walton 4-8 0-2 9; Matt Zwetolitz 2-4 3-3 7; Steve Kriczky 3-8 0-0 6; Eddie Ohlson 1-4 3-4 5; Jim Malatesta 2-2 0-0 5; Darnell Braswell 2-7 0-0 4; Ed Lapinski 1-2 0-0 3; Zach Hoover 1-3 0-0 3. Totals 29-54 11-18 73. Immaculata University......... 32 36 - 68 DeSales University............ 40 33 - 73 3-point goals-Immaculata University 4-16 (Julius Lopez 3-9; Kyle Finklea 1-4; Kris Behm 0-2; Scott Marston 0-1), DeSales University 4-19 (Jim Malatesta 1-1; Zach Hoover 1-2; Ed Lapinski 1-1; Sedale Walton 1-4; Darnell Braswell 0-4; Eddie Ohlson 0-2; Steve Kriczky 0-4; Matt Zwetolitz 0-1). Rebounds-Immaculata 34 (Kyle Finklea 8), DeSales 35 (Darnell Braswell 9). Assists-Immaculata 6 (Kris Behm 2), DeSales 21 (Eddie Ohlson 9).