St. David's, PA (January 8, 2011) – Sophomore Brett Moyer had career-highs of 24 points and 17 rebounds leading the DeSales University men's basketball team to a huge early season road win at Eastern University, 65-62, in Freedom Conference action on Saturday afternoon.
Moyer was 7-of-11 from the field and 10-for-15 from the free throw line for his 24 points. Senior Brian Hunter also reached double figures with 19 points, 15 in the first half, and added seven assists for the Bulldogs (9-4, 1-2 Freedom).
Sophomore Brian Kerwin had eight tallies, sophomore Paul Pammer finished with six points, and sophomore Greg Peters had a strong effort off the bench with five points and three rebounds. Junior Jamey Bercier contributed eight rebounds in the win.
Eastern (8-3, 2-1 Freedom) saw four players reach double figures including Alex Nelson and Dan Miller with 15 points each, Collin Whipple with 11 points, and Martin Soaries with 10 points.
This game was back-and-forth the entire afternoon with neither team ever holding a double digit lead. Tied at 15 midway thru the first half DeSales took the lead on back-to-back hoops from Hunter. Eastern pulled within one point several times and trailed by one, 26-25, but a three-pointer by junior Bob Zanneo with eight seconds left pushed the DSU advantage to five entering the halftime locker rooms.
DeSales started strong in the second stanza opening two different nine-point leads with the last coming at the 16:00 minute mark. Eastern began to chip away and at the 11:15 mark used a 6-0 run to take its first lead in the second-half, 47-45.
The Bulldogs however countered with eight straight points including two huge jumpers from Kerwin to lead, 53-47 with 7:04 to go.
The lead stuck at six until the 1:40 mark before five straight points from EU's Miller around one free throw from Hunter cut the DSU lead down to two points with 32 ticks left. Kerwin knocked down both freebies after being fouled with 24 seconds left before another Miller lay-in made it a 64-62 game with 9 seconds left.
After a scramble for the ball on the ensuing inbounds play, senior Tom Marshall gained control of the ball and found Moyer all alone on the other end of the court and Moyer was fouled with 1.5 seconds left. He made the first free throw, missed the second and the Eagles called timeout. Following the timeout a desperation heave from Eastern was wide of the backboard giving DSU the road victory.
The Bulldogs dominated the glass, holding a 43-31 edge on the backboards. Neither team turned the ball over much with just 18 combined turnovers in the game. The Eagles shot an impressive 46.7 percent from three-point land (7-for-15) for the game.
DSU returns to action on Wednesday, returning home to face Misericordia University in another Freedom Conference game beginning at 8:00 pm.