DALLAS (PA) – Delaware Valley College's hopes for a third Freedom Conference championship in the last five years ended on Saturday afternoon as top-seeded and host Misericordia University led from start to finish in a 77-66 victory in the title game.

The Cougars improved to 21-6 and captured its second conference championship in the last four years. They also earned the conference's automatic berth to the NCAA Division III playoffs.

For Delaware Valley, it was another stellar season under seventh year head coach Casey Stitzel as the Aggies went 16-11, qualified for the Freedom tournament for the fourth time and reached the title game for a third occasion. They captured the championship in both 2011 and 2013, but came up short on their run for title number three.

Delaware Valley senior Francis Arnold was stellar in defeat and his final collegiate game as he scored 30 of the team's 66 points and added six rebounds, five assists and four steals before fouling out in the final seconds. Arnold, who transferred in to Delaware Valley after one year at Bard College, finished his three years an Aggie with 1,062 points (1,282 in his career). He also finished second all-time in steals with 167 and eighth in steals with 267.

Misericordia came out fast, jumping out to a 9-2 lead in the opening three minutes and the Cougars increased it to 14-4 following a 3-pointer from Joe Busacca with 15:51 remaining. They did so but hitting six of their first nine shots.

Delaware Valley responded with a 10-4 run to trail by four after Jay Donovan hit a 3-pointer with 11:13 left. Francis Arnold scored in the spurt. The teams exchanged two points apiece (Busacca layup, Arnold free throws) before Misericordia scored 14 of the game's next 19 points to take its biggest lead at 34-21 with 5:19 remaining in the half. Busacca and Jamie Egan combined for 11 of the 14 points.

Four straight points from Manny Ochenje brought the Aggie deficit down to nine, but the Cougars got it back to double digits and they took a 40-29 lead into the break. Misericordia shot 42.9 percent from the field while Delaware Valley was just 8-for-29 (27.6%) and had seven of its shots blocked. Busacca had 17 points in the half for the Cougars while Arnold had 15 and Ochenje added six for the Aggies.

Misericordia bumped the lead back to 13 in the early stages of the second half, but Arnold hit back-to-back layups, the last coming at 13:45, and Misericordia called time with a 48-39 lead. The Cougars scored four of six for a double-digit lead and Arnold picked up his fourth foul with 10:24 remaining.

Arnold briefly came out of the game and Misericordia notched its biggest lead at 14 after a Steve Ware floated with 8:10 to go. The advantage stayed between 11 and 14 points for the next four minutes until Busacca went to the foul line with 3:48 to go and hit one of two for a 61-46 lead.

Arnold sank one free throw 20 seconds later and later stole an inbounds pass and fed Chris Moran for a layup and a 61-49 deficit with 2:44 left. The Aggies could never get closer than that until the final seconds when Arnold swished a 3-pointer and then had a drive for a basket with 3.9 seconds left for the final points of his career.

Delaware Valley shot just 33.8 percent from the field, including a 5-for-21 effort (23.8%) from 3-point land. The Aggies were 13-for-25 from beyond the arc in Wednesday's semifinal win over DeSales University. Misericordia held a 51-40 advantage on the boards and finished with 11 blocks (Delaware Valley had nine).

Arnold was the one Aggie to score double figures. Moran and Ochenje had eight points apiece while combining for 11 rebounds and seven blocks.

Busacca, the conference's player of the year, added tournament most valuable player honors to his hardware as he scored 29 points. Ware finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks while James Hawk added eight points, eight boards and six blocks.