The Bulldogs (17-3, 7-2 Freedom) led the entire way as they won their fourth straight game over King’s College (17-4, 8-2 Freedom) dating back to last season. The win gives DeSales the tiebreaker over King’s with a sweep of the season series. DSU shot 51.8 percent from the floor and 87.5 percent (14-of-16) from the free throw line to record the road win.
Zinn and Koch started the game hot scoring the first 12 DeSales points and after senior Jeff Clifford nailed a trey at the 15:04 mark, DSU led by 10 points, 15-5. DeSales continued to lead by 10 tallies, 19-9, before the Monarchs started to chip away at the lead. King’s cut the Bulldog advantage to one point, 30-29, in the first half, but Koch scored the last three points of the half and DeSales led by four, 33-29, at intermission.
DSU led by six points, 44-38, on a three-point play by Zinn at the 14:12 mark of the second half when King’s went on a 5-0 run to again get within one point at 44-43. Senior Harry Morra put a stop to the Monarch rally with a three-pointer which ignited a 12-4 DSU run that pushed the lead up to nine points, 56-47, with 9:40 left to play.
Consecutive field goals by Landon Gabriel and Jamar Stokes cut the lead to four points, 68-64, at the 1:48 mark and forced a DSU timeout. Out of the timeout, Clifford found a wide-open Zinn on the far side of the court and Zinn nailed his second trey of the game pushing the lead to seven points and the Bulldogs converted 7-of-8 charity tosses down the stretch to record the seven-point road victory.
Koch finished with a new career-high 22 points on 7-of-10 shooting and Zinn equaled his career-high with 25 tallies on 9-of-11 shooting. Junior Michael Venafra added a game-high seven assists in the win.
Four players totaled double digits for the Monarchs including Dave Marks with a game-high 26 points on 11-of-19 from the field. Stokes added 13 points, Marty O’Hora totaled 10 tallies, and Gabriel added 11 points off the bench in the loss.