DOYLESTOWN (PA) – Francis Arnold scored 26 points while Nick Sullivan came off the bench to pour in 23 as Delaware Valley College snapped a three-game losing streak and moved into a three-way tie for second place in the wild Freedom Conference with a 92-77 home victory over Misericordia University.

The Aggies improved to 12-11 overall and, more importantly, 7-5 in conference action with two regular-season games remaining. They are now tied with Misericordia (13-10 overall) and FDU-Florham for the second spot (which is a home game for the semifinals) and one behind front-runner DeSales University. Both King's College and Manhattanville College are at 6-6, leaving six teams within two games of each other. The top four qualify for the Freedom tournament and the Aggies finish with two of the six as they travel to Manhattanville next Tuesday and host FDU-Florham next Saturday.

Arnold scored 17 of his 26 points in the first half while Sullivan was deadly in the second stanza as he hit four 3-pointers and notched 18 points over the final 20 minutes.

Delaware Valley opened the game by trapping all over the court and the style forced 13 Cougar turnovers in the first half. The Aggies shot well from the floor in the half as they hit 15 of 31 shots (48.4%), including a 6-for-14 effort from 3-point land.

When the Cougars held onto the ball, they were deadly from the field as well as they hit 16 of 27 attempts (59.3%), including 5-for-12 from beyond the arc. There were seven ties in the half and it was deadlocked at 40-40 until Arnold was fouled while shooting a 3-pointer with 1.2 seconds left. He hit all three free throws for a 43-40 Delaware Valley advantage.

Misericordia opened the second half with a 9-0 run that was capped by a Griffin Sponaugle 3-pointer and it gave the Cougars a 49-43 lead with 17:03 remaining. Misericordia was up five four minutes later, when the Aggies went on a 14-2 spurt to take a 65-58 advantage with 10:24 to go. Chris Moran had the first five points while Sullivan hit two treys with a Nate Brown 3-pointer sandwiched in-between.

Misericordia pulled to within five on three occasions, the last coming when Sponaugle hit a bomb with 7:26 left to make the score 73-68. Delaware Valley answered with six straight as Arnold drained a trey, Zach Sly hit a layup and Adonis Fleming hit one free throw. The Cougars could not get closer than seven points the rest of the way.

The Aggies shot nearly 55 percent from the field in the second half and finished the game at 51.6 percent. They were 7-for-11 (63.6%) from 3-point land in the stanza and wound up hitting 13 of 25 attempts from downtown. They forced 22 turnovers for the game and held a slim, 31-30 advantage on the boards.

Arnold, who entered the game ranked sixth in Division III in steals (3.1 avg) had five picks on the day. Sullivan added four assists on the day and the two were a combined 9-for-14 from 3-point land. Moran notched 13 points and seven rebounds while Zach Sibel came off the bench to score 11 points. Sly finished with 10 points, five rebounds and five assists.

Joe Busacca had a monster afternoon for Misericordia as was 10-for-16 from the field (2-for-5 from 3-point land) and 10-for-11 from the foul line for 32 points. Nineteen of those points came in the first half alone. Spounaugle hit five treys and finished with 15 points. Leading scorer and rebounder Steve Ware played just 19 minutes before fouling out and he managed just six points and four boards.