Box Score DALLAS (PA) – The Delaware Valley University men's basketball team posted a win at Misericordia University for just the second time ever as it grinded out a 74-70, Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom triumph.
With the victory, the Aggies continued their standout season as they improved to 15-3 overall, the best 18-game record in program history. More importantly, they finished the first half of MAC Freedom play atop the standings with a 6-1 mark. The Cougars slipped to 9-9 overall and 3-4 in league action
The Anderson Center has generally been a place of horrors for the Aggies, including a loss in last year's conference championship game. However, DelVal had one of its better shooting nights in the gym as it hit 10 of 23 attempts (43.5%) from beyond the 3-point line. The Aggies were also able to turn 14 Misericordia turnovers into 22 points while the Cougars had just two points off of 10 DelVal miscues.
The game was still a battle despite those numbers and there were nine ties and seven lead changes and the contest wasn't decided until the closing seconds. DelVal led by three, 65-62, when Misericordia's Erik Kerns drilled a trey with 2:31 remaining. Back came the Aggies just 20 seconds later as
Tyliek Kimbrough took a great feed from
Zach Sly and hit inside. Then it was the Cougars' turn as Griffin Sponaugle hit from deep for a 67-66 lead with 1:22 remaining.
It turned out to be Misericordia's last advantage as DelVal went back on top when Kimbrough sank a pair of free throws with 1:22 left. After a Cougars' miss, the Aggies passed the ball around the perimeter as the clock went under the one-minute mark. Freshman
Andre' Butler then drilled a 3-pointer with 54 ticks to go for a four-point DelVal lead.
Misericordia cut its deficit in half with a pair of Sponaugle free throws with 28 seconds left. The Aggies brought the ball inbounds and threw it down the court to an open
Chris Moran. However, DelVal's leading scorer missed the layup and the Cougars had a chance to tie the game when Jason Kenny was fouled with 18.7 seconds left. Kenny missed the front end of the one-in-one and the Aggies'
Barry Brockington was fouled with 13.4 ticks to go. The senior went to the line for a one-in-one and calmly hit both attempts for a 74-70 lead. Misericordia had two turnovers the rest of the way and DelVal had the win.
An early Cougars' run gave the home team as 12-6 lead. The Aggies trailed by as many as eight in the first half, the cast coming at 28-20 with 5:04 left.
Matthew Gerner came off the bench for DelVal and drilled back-to-back treys.
Zach Sly followed with a layup to tie things up at 28-28 with 2:36 to go in the half. Just over a minute later, Gerner hit his fourth bomb of the stanza for a 33-32 Aggie advantage. Misericordia followed with the last basket of the half to go up by one at the break.
The Cougars upped their lead to as many as five early in the second half, before DelVal outscored them, 25-14, over the next nine minutes for its largest advantage of the game at six, 63-57, with 7:47 on the clock. Misericordia rallied to make it nip and tuck the rest of the way, but the Aggies had the answers for the win.
Moran finished with a game-high 19 points and paced the team with eight rebounds. Kimbrough netted 17 points while Gerner was 5-for-8 from 3-point land and added 15 points in 23 minutes. Brockington had nine points while Sly dished out six assists.
Sponaugle paced the Cougars with 17 points while a trio of teammates added 11 points apiece. Kerns was one of them and he also grabbed a game-high 13 boards.
DelVal will host Eastern University on Saturday, January 30 (3:00 p.m.).
