HAVERFORD (Pa.) – The Delaware Valley University men's basketball team kicked off the 2020 portion of its schedule at Haverford College on Friday afternoon and nearly overcame a 25-point halftime deficit, but the comeback effort fell just short as the home team held on for the 70-61 non-conference win.

The Fords improved to 9-1 overall while the Aggies fell to 4-6 as they get set for 14 straight Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom contests to close the season.  

DelVal opened the game on an 11-4 run behind six points from senior Mike Cianciulli, and it maintained a six-point advantage, 15-9, just 7:09 into the game.

The rest of the half belonged to the home team as Haverford outscored the Aggies, 42-11, the rest of the half to take a commanding, 51-26, lead into halftime.

The Fords were 20-for-31 (64.5%) from the field and 7-of-14 from three-point land compared to 9-for-35 (25.7%) and 1-of-10 for DelVal through the first 20 minutes. The Aggies corralled 10 offensive rebounds in the stanza but could only turn them into nine second chance points. Haverfords bench sparked the offense and contributed 25 points in the stanza.

DelVal slowly began to chip away at the deficit in the second half and got to within 20 at the halfway point, 64-44.

From there, the Aggies continued on to a 15-5 run to pull to within 10, 69-59, with just under three minutes left in regulation. Dariel Medina and Thomas Ibidapo came off the bench to deliver four points apiece in that run and Cianciulli had five points with two assists.

On the next possession, Cianciulli drove to the rim and hit another layup to make it 69-61 with under two to play. Haverford missed three shots on its next possession and then fouled DelVal sophomore guard Nestor Diaz, but he missed both of his attempts from the charity stripe to keep the deficit at eight points with just 56 ticks left and the Fords held on for the nine-point triumph.

Cianciulli finished with a game-highs of 26 points, 13 rebounds, and five assists on 10-of-14 shooting including one trey. Washington was just 6-for-23 from the field but contributed 18 points and seven rebounds. DelVal got 10 points from the bench including four apiece from Ibidapo and Medina. As a team, the Aggies shot 23-for-65 (35.4%) from the field and just 2-for-17 from deep, and maintained a 42-38 edge on the glass.

Haverford placed 11 players on the score sheet and Dhruv Mehrotra came off the bench to lead them all with 17 points including five treys on seven attempts. Jonathan Lang followed with 15 points to go with six rebounds and four steals while two other starters pitched in with eight points each. The Fords got 31 points from their bench and finished the game shooting over 42% from the field despite a 5-for-27 effort in the second half that included 1-of-10 3-pointers.  

DelVal opens MAC Freedom play on Wednesday at Stevens Tech. in Hoboken, New Jersey on Wednesday, January 8, at 5 p.m.