WILKES-BARRE (Pa.) – The Delaware Valley University men's basketball team won its third consecutive Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom contest as it narrowly escaped King's College with a 67-65 road victory.
The Aggies moved to 11-7 overall and 7-4 in conference play while the Monarchs fell to 6-10 and 2-8.
DelVal got the first bucket of the game when Matt Paulus found Pernell Ghee for a mid-range jumper, and the Aggies never trailed in the first half. King's worked to keep it close as it never trailed by more than seven in the half and managed to tie the score on three different occasions.
The last tie before the break came at 16-16 with 11:00 left in the first. From there, DelVal got three steals and two second-chance baskets as part of a 6-0 run. The Monarchs pulled to within one, 24-23, before the Aggies put together a 7-1 spurt, capped by a trey from Paulus, to open up a seven-point lead with just under four minutes to play in the half.
DelVal shot over 44-percent (15 of 34) from the field including an 11 of 20 effort from inside the arc as it held a 35-30 lead at halftime.
King's came out of the locker room and scored the first five points of the second half to tie the game again at 35 apiece. The Aggies responded with the next four points and the two teams would trade runs the rest of the way.
A Monarchs run of 11-6 over a 3:45 span gave them their first lead of the day at 48-47 with just under 11 minutes left in regulation. King's went 3-for-3 from beyond the arc with treys from three different players in the run.
After a Pernell Ghee layup put DelVal back in front, the Monarchs hit one-of-two free throws to tie it again. The Aggies fired back with back-to-back three's from Paulus, both off assists from Ryan Black, to go ahead for good at 52-50 with 7:48 remaining.
With 4:17 to play, Paulus connected from deep again and Nestor Diaz followed with a trey of his own to put DelVal ahead by six, 61-55. After a pair of free throws from King's, Ghee found Diaz for another 3-pointer to keep extend the lead to seven with 3:38 on the clock.
The home team would not go away quietly as it put together a 7-1 run to close the gap to just one, 65-64, with 57 seconds to play. Out of a timeout, the Aggies got the ball to sophomore Jordan Gombs who got to the rim for a layup to make it a three point game.
DelVal fouled Carmine Castillo with 11 ticks on the clock and he went 1-for-2 to make it 67-65. On the Aggies next possession, King's was able to quickly foul Paulus and send him to the line for a one-and-one. Paulus missed the front-end and the Monarchs got the rebound and called timeout with nine seconds left.
They ran a play for Castiello, but he turned the ball over and the game ended with DelVal on top, 67-65.
Each team shot over 40-percent form the field in the second half, but the Monarchs were 10-of-13 from the line compared to 5-for-9 for the visitors.
For the game, the Aggies shot 42.6% (26-of-21) and 9-of-27 (33.3%) from deep while holding King's to under 38-percent from the field. DelVal made less than half (6-of-13) of its free throws while the Monarchs were 19-for-25. Rebounds were 37-35 in favor of the home team while turnovers were 21-18 in favor of the Aggies.
Paulus led all players with a season-high 20 points, one off a career high. Paulus hit 5-of-13 3-pointers and added six rebounds and a game-high five assists. Ghee added 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting with a game-high seven boards. Godly Marc had another four-steal game and now ranks 7th in Division III with 3.18 steals per game.
King's was led by 18 points from Noah Tanner and 10 points, five rebounds, four assists, and four steals from Castiello.
DelVal will look to make it four in a row when it welcomes the Arcadia Knights to Doylestown for an 8 p.m. tip on Wednesday. The Knights defeated the Aggies, 83-57, when the two teams met earlier this year at Arcadia.
