DOYLESTOWN (PA) – The Delaware Valley University men's basketball team opened defense of its Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom championship by pulling away to a 74-64 home triumph over King's College.
The win in the league opener improved the Aggies to 6-6 overall while the Monarchs fell to 4-7.
Neither team led by more than four over the first 20 minutes and the game was deadlocked at 29-29 at the break. DelVal had the first possession in the second half and ran a set play to perfection as Tyrea Williams took an alley-oop feed from Tyliek Kimbrough. The Aggies never trailed from there as they scored nine of the next 13 points, including six from Alex Matsinye, for a 40-33 advantage.
King's pulled to within five on two separate occasions, the last coming when a Connor Callejas 3-pointer made it 47-42 near the midway point of the half. The Aggies responded with a 13-4 spurt thanks to eight more points from Matsinye for a 60-46 advantage with 5:19 left on the clock. DelVal moved the lead to as many as 15 with the Monarchs not getting any closer than 10 with a bucket in the final seconds.
The Aggies shot 46.9 percent from the field, including an 8-for-19 (42.1 percent) effort from 3-point land. They limited King's to 37.3 percent shooting from the field as the Monarchs managed to hit just four of 14 shots (28.6 percent) from 3-point land. King's was a perfect 22-for-22 from the foul line as it hit all 14 attempts in the first half and all eight in the second.
Sophomore Mike Cianciulli hit four treys and finished with a career-high 17 points for DelVal. Matsinye had all 14 of his points in the second half and he also added three assists and three steals. Kimbrough notched 12 points, six assists, five rebounds and three steals while Williams had three dunks, en route to an eight-point, 13-rebound performance.
Callejas paced the Monarchs with a game-high 18 points. Derek Wilkins came off the bench to score 12 points while Dan Rutecki added 10 points and seven rebounds.
The Aggies return to action on Saturday, January 7 (3 p.m.) when they host MAC Freedom rival DeSales University.