DOYLESTOWN (Pa.) – The Delaware Valley University men's basketball team put a bow on the condensed 2021 campaign with a 75-71 come-from-behind victory over Widener University in the Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth-Freedom crossover challenge.

The Pride (4-7)  went up early in the first half as they hit seven of their first 11 field goals and led by as many as 15 after a Steven Matlack layup made it 28-13 with under seven left in the stanza.  

The Aggies (5-5) fired back as their next four field goals all came from beyond-the-arc and off an assist as they chipped away at the deficit. They got to within six before Widener used a 5-2 spurt to close the half and go into the locker room up by nine, 42-33.

The Pride got the first bucket of the second to go back on top by double-digits, but the stingy DelVal defense forced three consecutive turnovers that sparked a 12-0 run to catapult the home team to its first lead of the game, 45-44, just 4:33 into the second. Nestor Diaz capped the run with a tough and-1 finish as Thomas Ibidapo found him cutting through the lane.

The Aggies never relinquished the lead the rest of the way including in the waning moments as Widener looked to tie or take the lead trailing by two with under a minute to play.

DelVal held the Pride to 10-of-28 shooting in the second half including 2-of-8 from three while it hit on over 48-percent of its field goals and made 5-of-11 from deep to close out the four-point victory.

The Aggies won the turnover battle by forcing 23 and committing just 16. Pernell Ghee led all scorers with 20 points and added four assists and three blocked shots. Jordan Gombs followed with 15 and three steals and Ryan Black drained three treys for 14 points. Diaz led the team on the glass with eight rebounds to go with nine points and Paulus chipped in eight points and five assists.

Kenny Lewis led the pride with 18 points and eight rebounds as four different players reached double figures in scoring.