St. David's, PA (February 21, 2018) - The DeSales University men's basketball team shot 54.8 percent in the second-half erasing a seven-point halftime deficit in a 74-69 win over Eastern University in the MAC Freedom postseason tournament semifinals on Wednesday evening.

The Bulldogs (20-6) advance to the MAC Freedom Championship game for the second straight year and will have a rematch of last year's title game as DSU will host Misericordia University, also a Wednesday winner over WIlkes, on Saturday in Billera Hall with the start time set for 3:00 pm.

Sophomore Tracy Simsick (Harleysville, PA) led the scoring attack on Wednesday, hitting for a game-high 24 points and adding a team-high tying four assists.  Senior Connor Jones (Hawley, PA) finished with 19 points and pulled down six boards, while junior Luke Connaghan(Warrington, PA) had 12 points and also pulled down six caroms.

Eastern (15-11) got 21 points and eight boards from Victor Pena, 12 points from William Blet, and 10 tallies from Antonio Chapman in the loss.

DeSales led early (8-5) before the Eagles went on a 12-0 run to take a 17-8 lead.  The Bulldogs trailed by as many as 10 points in the first-half before cutting the defict down to seven at the break after two Jones free throws with 15 seconds left.

DSU still trailed by seven (43-36) at the 15:20 mark when the Bulldogs made its run, using a 7-0 capped off by a three from Simsick to tie the game at 43.

The game featured two ties and seven lead changes over the next several minutes and was tied for the last time at 54 after two Pena free throws with 7:14 left to play.

A jumper from Simsick broke the tie and an unlikley hero came thru on the next possession as sophomore Alex House (Norristown, PA) hit a three-pointer just before a Simsick lay-up giving DSU a 61-54 lead with 4:50 remaining.

The lead was five with 1:25 left after two Jones freebies before consecutive turnovers saw Chapman cut the margin down to three with one minute left.

Connaghan missed two free throws on DSU's next possession but a Pena lay-up was off the mark and Simsick scored in transition to push the lead back to five points with 28 sceonds left.

EU's Darius Washington was fouled on the ensuing possession.  He hit the first free throw and missed the second but EU was awarded possession as the ball was knocked out of bounds on the rebound.  EU had two good looks, a three from Austin James and a putback from Pena, but both missed and Simsick was fouled sending him to the line with 11 seconds left.

He hit 1-of-2 charity tosses and after a quick Chapman lay-up made it a 3-point game with five seconds left, sophomore Ben Pratt was fouled and he iced the win with two free throws with three seconds remaining posting the final tally.

DeSales finished the game shooting 47.3 percent from the field and having committed just eight turnovers in the game, taking excellent care of the ball on the road.  DSU also shot very well from the free throw line hitting 17-of-24 (70.8 percent).