After defeating DeSales in the December match at home, Drew lost to the Bulldogs, 72-56, in Pennsylvania. Drew led at the half 30-29, but DeSales opened the second half with a 13-2 run giving the Bulldogs the lead for good. David Cramer led the Rangers with 11 points while ten Rangers got in the scoring column. Drew Christman led all scorers with 20 for DeSales. Drew fell to 8-12, 3-6 in the Freedom Conference with the loss while DeSales improved to 14-5, 5-4.
Drew built an 11 point lead early in the first half as a jumper from Abdul Jalloh gave the Rangers a 17-6 lead with nine minutes into the contest. DeSales quickly cut the lead down to seven and pulled within one on a three pointers with 30 seconds left in the half. Chris Lopez scored seven points in the half to lead Drew.
The Bulldogs blew the game open early in the first half as they came out of the locker room hot. A 13-2 run sparked by Eddie Ohlson and Drew Christman gave DeSales a lead that they would never relinquish. Though Drew pulled back to within six points on a Damon DiLorenzo layup off a Jaloh assist, the Rangers hold back DeSales, which has now won four straight games.
The Rangers did hold DeSales’ star center Phil Stricker to five points, ten points under his season average and were out-rebounded by just five by the Freedom’s top rebounding squad.
Cramer led the Rangers with 11 points on 4-6 shooting. Mullin scored nine and Jalloh added seven, but the Bulldogs did a good job on the Rangers’ top two scorers, holding Chris Lopez to just seven points and Bob Carella to only two. Damon DiLorenzo continues to adjust well to coming off the bench as he scored eight points and tallied four boards and two steals.
Sedale Walton scored ten points for the Bulldogs, as did Jeff Raimo. Mike Zinn added 12 and Eddie Ohlson recorded a game-high 12 assists to only three turnovers.
Drew will face Lycoming on Saturday at Lycoming.