The Bulldogs (24-4 overall) advance to the championship game and will play the #6 seed, Lebanon Valley College (16-12 overall) whom defeated the #2 seed Alvernia College (21-7 overall), 71-68, in the other semifinal. Albright’s season comes to an end with an overall record of 17-10 overall. The Bulldogs face the Flying Dutchmen on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 pm.
Zinn, the Freedom Conference Player of the Year this season, was blanketed all day long and with 17 seconds left and DeSales down two points after a missed free throw from the Lions, DSU ran a play freeing up Zinn who knocked down his only trey of the game and eventually winning the game for the Bulldogs. Albright had one last chance but after several pump fakes underneath the basket, AC ran out of time and DeSales escaped with the win.
The Bulldogs led nearly the entire first half until the Lions went on a 9-1 run to end the half, taking a 37-36 lead into the locker rooms. The second half was all Albright as they led for most of the final 20 minutes and by seven points, 72-65, before the late game heroics.
A jumper plus a freebie by junior Kyle Koch cut the lead to four points at 72-68 with 1:12 left to play. A missed charity toss on the other end gave DSU possession and after Koch missed the front end of a 1-and-1, fellow junior David Spadt (Emmaus, PA/Emmaus) tipped out the rebound and Koch was fouled once again. This time he knocked down both free throws and the lead was cut to two points, 72-70.
The Bulldogs fouled the Lions, Terron Buchanon, who after a DSU timeout missed the front end of the 1-and-1 and DSU set-up for the last shot. Zinn came off a flare screen on the right side, junior Kevin Welsh made a beautiful pass right to Zinn, who caught and fired and hit nothing but net to give DSU the lead and eventually the win.
Koch kept DeSales in the game for most of the second half as he poured in a career-high 24 points on 9-of-17 shooting. Juniors Michael Venafra and Spadt each tallied 14 points and Zinn finished with seven including the game-winner.
Buchanon led Albright with 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting, Trevor Deeter tallied 14 points and nine rebounds, and Ben Gallagher totaled 12 points and eight rebounds.
In the second game, the Flying Dutchmen scorched the nets for 57.7 percent shooting in the second half as they erased a nine-point halftime deficit to advance to the final. JD Byers led LVC with 19 points and 10 assists, while senior Ray Strickland finished his brilliant career with a 27 point effort on 10-of-19 shooting.