The win advances the Bulldogs (8-3 overall) to the championship game of the Casa Mia Tournament at 4:00 pm on Saturday afternoon. DSU will play Elizabethtown College (7-5 overall), a 93-63 winner of Grove City College (5-7 overall). Averett (3-5 overall) takes on Grove City in the consolation game beginning at 2:00 pm.
Trailing by five points, 36-31, with 16:30 left to play in the second half, DeSales went on an 18-4 run over the next nine minutes to take a commanding nine-point lead, 49-40, and never really looked back. Senior Michael Venafra scored nine points during the spurt and junior Drew Christman started and ended the run with lay-ups for the Bulldogs.
Averett never got any closer than seven points the rest of the way as the Bulldogs shot 57.7 percent in the second half to record the win.
In the first half both teams shot poorly with DeSales converting 34.6 percent of its shots and the Cougars canning just 32.0 percent as the two teams settled for a tie at 24. The opening 20 minutes saw five lead changes and four ties.
Venafra finished with a game-high 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting and fellow senior Kyle Koch added 16 points and seven rebounds. Freshman Phil Stricker totaled 10 points, eight in the first half and senior Kevin Welsh dished out a game-high seven assists in the win.
Averett was led by Andrew Boor with 12 points and Lymon Gregory with 11 tallies.