St. Mary's, MD (December 9, 2013) – After an 11-hour bus trip thru the snow and treacherous travel conditions on Sunday the DeSales University men's basketball team made the trip well worth it, dismantling the 12th ranked St. Mary's College (MD) Seahawks, 80-70, on Monday evening in SMC's home opener.

Seniors Paul Pammer (21 points) and Kyle Hash (20 points) led the way and senior Cory Schmidt came off the bench to score a season-high 12 points in the win.  DSU shot 82.8 percent (24-of-29) from the free throw line and held the Seahawks to just 10-for-31 (32.3%) from outside the arc.

Nick Laguerre led St. Mary's with 24 points and Donn Hill added 16 tallies.

The Bulldogs almost didn't get there.  Despite having left a day early.  The heavy snow combined with some grid lock traffic conditions just outside Philadelphia made a 4-5 hour bus trip last 11 hours on Sunday.

The Seahawks took a 14-8 lead early and increased its advantage to eight (19-11) seven minutes into the game before the Bulldogs bench led an 11-2 run, taking a 22-21 lead on a three-point play from Schmidt who had eight of the 11 points during the run.

The rest of the first-half was a back-and-forth affair that saw Pammer hit a running jumper on the baseline with 28 seconds left to give DSU a 36-35 edge into the locker room.

The start of the second-half was more of the same as the score was tied at 42 with 16:27 left when the Bulldogs took control.

An innocent free throw from sophomore Travis Bryan one minute later ignited a game-changing 20-2 run over the span of 10:16 as the Bulldogs raced to a 62-44 lead with 6:11 left to play.

After the Bryan freebie, freshman Kuity Slanger hit a three-pointer to make it a four-point game.  Slanger came thru again later in the run with a pull up jumper giving either team its first double digit advantage of the game and sophomore Cody Deal and Pammer finished the run with back-to-back three-pointers.

The game was never really in doubt the rest of the way as the Seahawks never got any closer than the final 10-point margin with a three at the buzzer as the Bulldogs iced the game hitting 14-of-18 from the free throw line over the final four minutes.

The Bulldogs bench was outstanding, out-scoring SMC's reserves, 23-10.  The loss is also the first for St. Mary's since February 23, 2012 at home, snapping a 16-game home winning streak.

DeSales gets just one day of rest before returning to action on Wednesday, December 11th, hosting PSU-Berks in a non-conference game beginning at 7:00 pm.