DOYLESTOWN, Pa. – The Delaware Valley men's basketball team nearly overcame a 20-point deficit cutting Misericordia's lead to just seven early in the second half, but a huge 40-point effort from the Cougars through the final 14 minutes forced the Aggies to drop the contest 99-75 to start conference play.
The Aggies gave up eight points to the Cougars to start the first ended by a layup from
Jordan Gombs at the 16:33 mark to put DelVal on the board. Misericordia drained a three-pointer to pull ahead by 16 answered by
Tyriq Toney-Bailey to cut the deficit down to three, but an ensuing 3-of-3 effort from the long range for the Cougars extended the lead to 20 and forced a DelVal timeout with 11:32 remaining in the half.
The threes continued to fall, but this time in way of the Aggies with
Goddy Marc and
Jordan Gombs both converting the long ball over the next minute to cut the deficit to 17, 32-15. The Aggies cut the deficit to 11 over the next 9:27 with a 21-13 run capitalized by nine points from
Godly Marc and a 2-of-2 effort from deep by Toney-Bailey. Misericordia put four more points on the board in the final 45 seconds to extend its lead to 15, 51-36, at the end of the half.
DelVal came out hot with nine points highlighted by an
Antonio Redding three-pointer to bring the deficit back down to 11, but the Cougars quickly responded with a three of their own to extend the lead back to 14 taking a timeout at 16:58 to regroup. A
Rasheem Dearry three started the Aggies on a 7-0 run to bring the gap down to single digits, 59-52, and force another Cougars timeout with 15:46 still remaining on the clock.
The Cougars blew open the scoring in the remaining time putting up 40 points on 12-of-23 from the field including 7-of-11 from beyond the arc and 9-of-12 from the charity stripe while holding the Aggies to just 23 points on 8-of-26 shooting, 1-of-10 from the long range and 6-of-7 from the line led by seven points from Dearry.
Delaware Valley is back in action this Saturday, Jan. 6 at Lebanon Valley in a 3 p.m. tipoff with the Flying Dutchmen.
