Basketball

Delaware Valley 93, Wilkes University 84

DOYLESTOWN (PA) - What a difference three weeks makes.

Exactly 21 days after suffering an 89-42 loss at Wilkes University, Delaware Valley used 26 points from guard Isaiah Pinckney and many key offensive rebounds down the stretch to upset the first-place Colonels, 93-84, in a home Freedom Conference game.

The win snapped a seven-game losing streak for the Aggies as they improved to 5-16 overall and 2-8 in conference play. Meanwhile the Colonels have lost three consecutive Freedom games to fall to 11-7 overall, 7-3 in the conference. Combined with King's win over DeSales and Scranton's victory over FDU-Florham on Saturday, and the Colonels have dropped into a second place tie with Scranton and one back of King's with four games remaining.

Pinckney, who was held to four points on 2-for-10 shooting in Wilkes-Barre, went 10-for-18 from the field on Saturday while also hitting five of nine foul shots. He also added four assists and did not turn the ball over in 40 minutes of action.

The undersized Aggies were aggressive on the boards and held a 47-37 difference on the boards, including 16 at the offensive end. Eleven of the 16 came in the second half, including a number of crucial grabs after missed free throws in the closing minutes.

Delaware Valley used a 9-0 run to take a 24-14 advantage midway through the first half. The team later went on a 5-0 run - three by Pinckney - to build its largest lead of the game, 36-22, with 7:18 to go before intermission.

Back came the Colonels as they scored eight straight and 16 of 19 to cut the Aggies lead to one, 39-38 with 2:15 remaining in the half. However, Delaware Valley recovered and took a 46-41 lead into the intermission.

Up three early in the second stanza, the Aggies scored seven straight for a 61-51 advantage with 13:44 to go. Wilkes responded as Mike Constantine hit a trio of three pointers over the next four minutes to help the Colonels pull to within two on a pair of occasions.

Wilkes got to within two again, 67-75, with 6:51 remaining on an Evan Walters layup, but Delaware Valley never relinquished its lead as Bill Gelsomini responded with his fourth 3-pointer of the game to ignite a 7-2 run and make it 74-67 with 5:19 remaining. Wilkes never got closer than four points the rest of the way and that was at 88-84 with 23 seconds to go. However, the Aggies hit five of six free throws in the final seconds to ice the game.

In addition to Pinckney's effort, Gelsomini notched a career-high 13 points in 20 minutes of action off the bench. Dominique Brown also came off the bench to score 13 while Josh Taylor had a big game inside with 11 points and eight rebounds, including four offensive boards in the second half alone. Forward Maurice Slaughter contributed nine points and a game-high 11 rebounds, including four offensive boards of his own in the final 20 minutes.

Chris Shovlin paced Wilkes with 20 points and nine assists while Kline ended the afternoon with 17 points. Constantine finished 5-for-11 from beyond the arc for 15 points and Walters notched 13 points and nine rebounds before fouling out with less than four minutes to go.