DOYLESTOWN (PA) – Delaware Valley University, behind 33 points from Tyliek Kimbrough, regained a share of first place atop the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Freedom standings with an 80-64 league win over visiting Wilkes University.
The Aggies improved to a mark of 11-8 overall and 6-2 in conference games. Eastern University entered the day a game ahead of DelVal but dropped its home contest to DeSales University to create the tie. The Colonels, who lost to the Aggies in last year's MAC Freedom Championship Game, fell to 9-10 overall and 3-5 in the MAC Freedom with today's loss.
The Aggies jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead in this one behind a layup from Andre' Butler, an alley-oop from Butler to Tyrea Williams and another Williams layup. Wilkes quickly tied the game with a trey from Marcus Robinson and an old-school three point play by Mark Mullins.
DelVal held onto a 15-10 lead before Tommy Brown found Rob Pecorelli open from beyond the arc for the Colonels to make it a two-point contest with 13:22 on the first half clock.
From there, the Aggies went on a 21-5 run over the next six minutes to open up a 36-18 lead. Butler, Cianciulli and Austin Stoeckel all hit 3-pointers and Kimbrough scored eight of his 14 first-half points over that stretch. Wilkes would not go away as it scored 15 of the final 21 points of the half to cut its deficit to single digits, 42-33. John Goffredo and Connor Evans combined for all 15 of the Colonels' points in that run with Goffredo connecting on three treys.
After the teams traded a pair of points to start the second half, Williams electrified the Aggies and their home crowd with a pair of dunks. The first came in alley-oop fashion off a feed from Kimbrough. On the second, Kimbrough led a fast break and fed Williams who finished strong at the rim to put DelVal ahead 48-35 early in the stanza. The Aggies extended their lead to 17 with 13:39 to play when Kimbrough found Williams cutting to the basket for another alley-oop slam.
Kimbrough scored 12 of his 33 points down the stretch as DelVal led by as many as 21 points. As a team, the Aggies shot 57.7 percent (15-for-26) from the field in the second half and finished the game an impressive 30-for-58 (51.7%), including 7-for-18 (38.9%) from beyond the arc. By comparison, Wilkes was 19-for-62 (30.6%) from the field and 10-for-35 (28.6%) from long range.
Kimbrough shot 12-for-16 from the field and 2-for-2 from 3-point land on his way to his second-highest total of the season. He also added seven assists, six rebounds and three steals. Williams notched a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds while Cianciulli and Alex Matsinye finished with 12 and 11 points respectively.
The Colonels were led by Robinson's 13 points and three players led the way on the boards with 4.
DelVal will take the court again on Wednesday when it travels to King's College to take on the Monarchs at 8 p.m.