Basketball

Westminster 129, Delaware Valley 125

NEW WILMINGTON (PA) - In a wild shootout that featured five players going over the 20-point mark, Westminster College outlasted Delaware Valley College, 129-125, in the Titans' Buzz Ridl Classic.

The Aggies will now face seventh-ranked St. John Fisher, which was upset by Baldwin-Wallace earlier on Friday, in the consolation game (6:00 p.m.).

The 125 points scored by Delaware Valley was two shy of the school record set in a 127-53 rout of Beaver College (now Arcadia University) back in 1990. The game featured 185 field goal attempts, 107 rebounds and 57 turnovers as Westminster plays the run-and-gun offense, pressure-defense style of play.

Delaware Valley connected on 50 of 80 shots from the field and outrebounded the Titans by a 62-45 margin. However, the Aggies turned the ball over 37 times.

The back and forth game saw Delaware Valley hold a 123-122 lead with 56 seconds remaining as sophomore transfer Dominque Brown hit a layup. Westminster responded with four straight points and a 126-123 advantage with 34 seconds remaining.

Maurice Slaughter followed up a Brown miss with a basket to cut the Aggie deficit to one with 23 seconds to go. Mark DeMonaco was fouled a second later and he hit both free throws for a three-point advantage. Delaware Valley's Isaiah Pinckney missed a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left and Ryan Ricketts added a free throw for Westminster to ice the game.

Brown, a transfer from Holy Family University, hit 12 of 15 shots from the field and finished with a game-high 28 points in 27 minutes of action. Fellow newcomer Zack Van Dyke came off the bench to hit 12 of 14 shots for 26 points and eight rebounds in 30 minutes. Pinckney added 19 points, six steals and a career-high 12 assists while Slaughter had a double-double with 15 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Ryan McMullin added 12 points and eight rebounds in the loss.

DeMonaco had 28 points for the Titans while Craig Hannon and Brian Urso contributed 27 and 26 points respectively.