Center Valley, PA (February 12, 2011) – A 23-4 run over the first nine minutes of the second half broke open a close game, leading the DeSales University women's basketball team past King's College, 72-48, in Freedom Conference action on Saturday afternoon.
The win moves the Bulldogs (15-8, 8-4 Freedom) into a three-way tie for second place with King's College (14-9, 8-4 Freedom) and Manhattanville College, a winner over Eastern University on Saturday. Misericordia University has a one-game lead in the standings with two games remaining on the regular season schedule.
Four players reached double digits for DeSales on Saturday including freshman Sondrine Glovas with a game-high 16 points. Glovas also added seven rebounds and three steals. Senior Lori Lidlow poured in 14 points, junior Cherelle Simmons recorded her ninth double-double of the season with 12 points and 15 rebounds, and freshman Faith Gilbert had a terrific game off the bench with 10 points.
Junior Hannah Smith dished out a career-high 10 assists, sophomore Colleen Gavin had seven points and six boards off the bench, and seniors Megan Montchyk and Shania Dymond combined for 10 points and nine boards on senior day.
King's got 12 points from Brittany Muscatell, 11 tallies from Paige Carlin, and 10 points from Celia Rader in the loss. Muscatell led the charge on the glass with nine pulls.
The Bulldogs broke this game wide open at the start of the second half, scoring the 12 points of the half and finishing with a 23-4 spurt that gave DSU a 27-point lead (59-32) with 11:17 left to play. Glovas led the way with eight points during the run and Gavin scored all seven of her points during the stretch as the Lady Monarchs never got any closer than 20 points the rest of the way.
The first half was a back-and-forth battle that saw the score tied twice and three lead changes. King's trailed by just three (24-21) before a 7-0 Bulldog run pushed the lead up to 10 before DSU settled for the eight-point halftime advantage.
For the DeSales shook off a poor first-half rebounding performance with a 45-36 edge on the glass for the game. The Bulldogs shot 45.5 percent from the floor and held the Lady Monarchs to just 27.0 percent shooting for the game.
The Bulldogs will return to action on Tuesday when they play host to Wilkes University in the final regular season home game beginning at 6:00 pm