City of Basketball Love

Thomas Primosch (@Thomas Primosch)
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DeSales head coach Scott Coval knew Arcadia would make a comeback. It was just a question of whether or not his players could withstand it.

“If you’re 10-2, you’re not giving up at halftime. If the team is 2-10 it’s a little different, teams kind of roll over,” Coval said. “They’re 10-2 so you know they’re going to come back.”

Down 17 at half, the Knights did indeed make a significant run in the closing 20 minutes, but the Bulldogs were able to keep their composure and escape with a 79-77 road win in the non-league matchup.

After pulling ahead towards the end of the first half, DeSales (9-4) went into halftime with a 45-28 lead.

Coval was pleased with the way his team played on both sides of the ball in the first half. The Bulldogs shot 50 percent from the floor and led for 17:06 of the first half.

“Things just flowed really well. I really thought that defensively, we played really well in the first half,” he said.

DeSales came out quickly to start the second half, going up by as many as 19 at the 19:49 mark. However, the Knights slowly chipped away and got the game to within seven with 10:06 to go.

With 3:18 left in the game, freshman guard Josh Scott scored five quick points off of back-to-back steals by the Knights to cut the deficit to one.

After the two teams traded baskets for the next minute and a half, junior Kuity Slanger converted on back-to-back layups around an Arcadia bucket from Alex Cohen to give the Bulldogs a 77-74 lead.

The Knights had 26 seconds to diagram a play to get an open look but John Landro’s three pointer rimmed out; after Arcadia secured the offensive rebound, his second attempt barely glanced the rim.

The Bulldogs got the rebound and Arcadia (10-3) was forced to foul Aaron Burton who nailed both his free throws to ice the game.

Slanger a 6-foot-2 native of Upper Darby, registered a double-double to the tune of 14 points and 12 rebounds. He made all five of the field goals he attempted and also added seven assists.

“This year I’m trying to be a better leader both vocally and by example so I just felt I need to be more aggressive and more assertive towards the end and that’s what I did there,” said Slanger.

Ultimately, 15 total turnovers along with a dismal 33.3 percent field goal percentage in the first half proved to be too much for the Knights to overcome.

Leading the offense for the Bulldogs was senior Cody Deal, who finished with 15 points on 5-11 shooting from the field. Deal drilled three 3-pointers during a 16-4 run towards the end of the first half.

“It felt good to knock them down,” he said. “I’ve been struggling to shoot consistently so it’s always good to hit a couple shots in a row like that and help your team get a little bit of a lead.”

Deal also added five rebounds, three assists, and a steal.

Freshmen Evan Slone had 19 points and eight rebounds and Josh Scott added 11 points for the Knights.

Despite DeSales’ excellent defensive effort in the first half, Coval wasn’t pleased with his team’s play for most of the second half.

“I thought we got really tentative in the second half and we didn’t attack the way we should’ve attacked. But give Arcadia a lot of credit. They caused that,” he said.

However Coval, who is in his 22nd year as the head coach at DeSales, did like what he saw towards the end of the game and he recognized how his team stood their ground and was able to score when they needed to.

“I thought we got really tentative in the second half and we didn’t attack the way we should’ve attacked. But give Arcadia a lot of credit. They caused that. I did think though, down the stretch in the last four minutes, I thought we made some really big plays,” Coval said.

DeSales will take on King’s at home next Wednesday and the Bulldogs will look to build on their solid win from tonight.

“It was a good basketball game. Arcadia’s a really good team and to come down here on the road and get a win; we’re happy about that,” Coval said.