The Misericordia University men's basketball team was picked seventh in the Freedom Conference preseason coaches poll, so it's safe to say that few of the Cougars' opponents expected them to challenge for a league title.

Despite some promising early performances, a 74-66 loss at King's on January 20 meant that the Cougars were 2-4 in the league with their playoff chances fading fast.

MU (16-10, 10-5) hasn't looked back since, running off eight of nine victories in conference play and defeating Eastern comfortably on the road, 80-65, in Wednesday's semifinal.

Now Misericordia has a chance to continue its improbable season in Saturday's conference title game against the only Freedom team that was able to beat MU the entire second half of the season- defending champion DeSales (21-5, 14-1).

On February 11, the Cougars hung with the league leaders all game but fell victim to a 30-point performance from senior Darnell Braswell that included the clinching three-pointer with 19 seconds remaining. DeSales escaped with a 63-59 win.

Misericordia will be playing for its first NCAA appearance in program history. The Cougars made it to the PAC title game on two occasions but have not won a league championship since becoming an NCAA institution.

The Bulldogs are looking to return to the NCAA Tournament after making it all the way to the Elite Eight in 2009. This is DeSales' fifth Freedom championship game appearance in six years.

Misericordia senior forward Dom Del Prete (16.9 ppg, 5.3 rpg) has come up big all season and was finally rewarded last week as the Freedom Player of the Week- MU's only such honor all year.

Three other Cougar players are averaging in double-figures and could pose matchup problems for the Bulldogs- three-point marksman Jeff Slanovec (12.1 ppg) and dynamic swingmen Robbie Johnson (12.1 ppg) and Ethan Eichhorst (10.8 ppg).

Rounding out the starting lineup are seniors Marcus Little and Mark Williams. Williams leads the league in league in field goal percentage (56.5%), while Little is third in assists (4.08 apg).

Coming off the bench for Misericordia with Eichhorst is super-athletic freshman Sean Bieski and junior Mark Leonard, who had a string of big-time shots in the second half at Eastern.

DeSales is led by Braswell, a 2008-09 first team All-American who just became the all-time leading scorer in school history. Braswell leads the Freedom in scoring (20.7 ppg) and is third in rebounding (8.3 rpg) despite playing as a guard.

A stacked DeSales team also features junior Brian Hunter (10.8 ppg, 3.9 apg) and senior Rob Schubach (8.0 ppg, 3.5 assist-to-turnover ratio). The Bulldogs are the deepest team in the league, with nine players averaging at least 13.8 minutes per game.

The Freedom championship game tips off at 3 PM. Fans unable to travel to Center Valley can follow the game with live stats or live audio. Live video will also be provided, check the DeSales athletics site on game day for the link.