WILKES BARRE (Pa.)--- The Delaware Valley men's basketball team took a one point lead into halftime and led for the entirety of the second half, as the Aggies defeated King's 81-70 to earn their first MAC Freedom win of the season.
After team's exchanged baskets to start the game, Casey Caruso capped a 9-2 Aggie run with a three pointer to put the visitors up 11-4. The Monarchs quickly answered with a 12-0 burst to lead 16-11 midway through the quarter. After the Aggies took a 22-21 lead with 8:09 left, King's went on an 8-3 run to lead 29-25. Justin Savage scored five straight points with a layup and a triple to put DelVal back in front 30-29 with five minutes left in the first half. The Aggies held on to the lead for the remainder of the first half as they led 37-36 heading into the break.
It was a hot start for DelVal to start the second stanza, as they went on an 11-5 run to open up their largest lead of the game at 48-41. During that stretch, four different Aggies scored, as Ewens Lizima, Rasheem Dearry, Jordan Gombs and Godly Marc found the scorebook. After a Dearry triple gave the Aggies a 51-43 lead, Tyriq Toney-Bailey scored five straight DelVal points with Francis Robles Montas and Jake McGinty each scoring buckets to give the Aggies their largest lead of the game at 60-47 with 10:46 left.
DelVal kept the Monarchs at arms length over the next five minutes until King's closed the gap to 65-62 with 5:35 to play. Zoelin Pair started a 6-0 run with a layup as the Aggies regained a comfortable eight point lead with 4:21 left. The Monarchs closed the gap to four with 1:02 left, but Savage and Dearry each scored layups to allow the Aggies to hang on and win 79-75.
Rasheem Dearry led the Aggies with 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting and 3-of-6 from deep.
Justin Savage was the other Aggie in double figures with 17 points to go with five rebounds and three assists.
Ewens Lizima stuffed the stat sheet with ten rebounds, five assists and four steals.
DelVal shot 47% from the field while outrebounding King's 41-33.
The Aggies will return to action Wednesday, December 7th at 6 p.m. at Arcadia.
