We’ll skip right to the final two minutes and 48 seconds with Wilkes leading the Bulldogs 63-55 and possession of the ball. DSU freshman Ed Lapinski made a steal, dribbled the length of the court, stopped on the left side just above the three-point line and nailed a trey igniting a large roar from the student section in the left corner of the far bleachers.
A foul on the other end gave the Colonels’ Jeremy Kable a 1-and-1 and Kable missed the front end. DSU corralled the rebound and Lapinski found senior Drew Christman at about the same spot Lapinski canned a trey the possession before and Christman topped it with one of his own and the Colonel lead was down to two points with 1:24 left.
Colonel Head coach Jerry Rickrode signaled for a timeout and what happened over the next one second could not have been what he drew up in the huddle. Sophomore Chris Shovlin went to inbound the ball at half court and threw it off the back of Evan Walters on the offensive side of half court, the ball bounced to the defensive side of the court and Matt Gould picked it up for an over the back violation, DSU ball. Before DeSales could get the ball in, Gould was whistled for a holding foul on sophomore Eddie Ohlson and Ohlson calmly swished both charity tosses and we were tied, with 1:11 remaining.
Enter Mike Constantine for the Colonels. After working the ball around on the offensive end, Constantine was spotted open on the right side of the top of the key and he launched a trey from well outside the three-point arc and hit nothing but net reclaiming the lead, 66-63, for Wilkes. A turnover on the other end and Gould was fouled in the back court, calmly hit both freebies and the lead was back to five with 38 seconds left.
The Bulldogs took the ball, worked it around the horn looking for an open three-point attempt and junior Steve Kriczky found one in the far corner which he nailed to cut the lead to 68-66. Gould was fouled again and he made it 8-for-8 from the free throw line for the game and the lead was four points with 18 ticks on the clock.
Christman canned a jumper in the lane on the ensuing possession and this time DSU fouled Constantine. He missed the first of two, but made the second and a long three-point attempt from Christman as he was falling away from the basket hit the front rim and Wilkes had escaped Billera with a Freedom Conference win.
Other than the last 2:48, it was a game of runs for both teams. DSU started the game with an 11-2 spurt, Wilkes answered with a 25-9 run and DSU had a mini 5-1 spurt to end the half with Wilkes running into the locker room holding a 33-29 lead. A 10-3 run early in the second half, gave DSU a two-point lead but that was immediately answered by a 14-2 run by the Colonels that saw them take the largest lead of the game, 10 points, 56-46, with 9:20 to play.
Both teams shot very well with DeSales canning 49.0 percent from the field and Wilkes converting 48.8 percent. The Colonels had just 15 shot attempts in the second-half but made the most of them with 10 made buckets. WU held a huge edge on the free throw line making 22-of-28 for the game, compared to DSU’s 8-for-9. Both teams had 16 turnovers and the Colonels held a slim 24-23 edge on the boards.
Leading the attack for DeSales was Christman with a game-high 20 points on 8-of-15 shooting. Sophomore Phil Stricker totaled 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting before fouling out late in the second half and senior Mike Zinn added 11. Ohlson finished with six points and seven assists and Kriczky came off the bench to can three treys for nine points.
Shovlin totaled 15 points and added seven assists, freshman Steve Kline added 13 points, 12 in the opening half, Walters had 10 tallies and Constantine added 10 off the bench including some big three-pointers in the second-half.