DOYLESTOWN (Pa.) – Senior newcomer Pernell Ghee eclipsed the 1,000 career-point plateau and led the Delaware Valley University men's basketball team with 23 points, but it was not enough as the visiting Arcadia Knights held off the home team down the stretch to come away with an 81-76 triumph.

The first half started slow, but Arcadia built up a 22-12 lead after 10 minutes of play. The lead grew to 11, 28-17, with just over five minutes on the clock before the Aggies scored the next seven points in a span of 1:12 to pull within four, 28-24. Nestor Diaz started the spurt with a pair of free throws and capped it with a three ball.

DelVal continued to outpace the Knights the rest of the half and cut the deficit to two, 35-33, at the break.

Diaz started the second half with a layup off a nice feed from Thomas Ibidapo and connected from deep after a Matt Paulus grabbed an offensive board and kicked it out to Diaz. That put the Aggies on top, 38-37, for the first time.

The team's traded buckets over the next five and change and DelVal maintained a two-point lead with 12:08 left in regulation. Arcadia scored the next eight points behind five from Da'Kquan Davis to open up a 57-51 lead.

The Knights maintained a seven-point lead with 7:13 to play, but the home team would not go away. Paulus and Ghee hooked up for a pair of layups, one of which Ghee converted for an and-1, and Ibidapo finished a nice feed from Edward Jones to tie the game at  64 apiece with just over six minutes on the clock.

Arcadia responded with a 10-2 run led by Davis' six points to go back up by eight, 74-66.

With under 30 seconds to play and DelVal trailing by five, Dariel Medina came off the bench and drilled a 3-pointer while being fouled. He hit the free throw and made it a one-point game with 23 ticks left. Down the other end, Davis converted an and-1 but Medina fired right back with another trey to keep it a one-point game with under 10 to play.

The Aggies had one final chance to tie the game but an unforced error gave the ball back to the Knights and secured the win for the visitors.

Ghee reached his milestone with 16:34 left in the game as he connected on a pair of free throws for points 999 and 1,000. He was 9-for-11 from the charity stripe and added six rebounds and three assists. Diaz and Medina followed with 12 points each and Diaz led the way on the glass with seven rebounds to go with two steals. Paulus scored 11 points and had seven assists and six boards.

As a team, the Aggies drew seven offensive fouls against Arcadia and have now taken 12 charges over the first two games of the season.

Davis led all players with 31 points to go with seven rebounds as he shot 12-for-14 from the line and 3-for-7 from beyond the arc.