A gutsy road effort carried the Misericordia University men's basketball team to an 80-65 victory over Eastern and put MU in the Freedom Conference championship game where they will face defending champion DeSales, Saturday at 3:00 p.m.

A deadly efficient MU team shot 52.9% from the field and 87.5% from the line, with just eight turnovers.

Senior Dom Del Prete led the Cougars with 22 points and five rebounds, both team-highs. Sophomore Ethan Eichhorst had 14 points, while classmate Jeff Slanovec added 11. Senior point guard Marcus Little had five assists.

In their first Freedom playoff game, the Cougars faced off against an old PAC foe in Eastern. The Eagles' undersized gym was packed half an hour before tip-off and the raucous Eastern students were loud throughout the game.

MU built a 37-29 halftime lead and Del Prete had the first four points of the second half to put the Cougars up 41-29. After two Eastern baskets, Robbie Johnson had a nice block from behind and Del Prete forced in a put-back to restore the 10-point advantage.

Four straight points from Eichhorst put the Cougars up 49-37 with 11:45 to play.

An Eastern three-point play put the deficit back into single-digits and had the crowd back on their feet, but Del Prete silenced them with a basket underneath.

Junior Mark Leonard had a huge role in putting the contest away, hitting a corner three to push MU's lead to 18 before getting knocked down on a trey and converting the four-point play to put the Cougars up 66-43.

Eastern showed signs of life with a quick 10-2 run, but the damage had been done. Misericordia becomes the only Freedom Conference team to win in St. David's, PA this entire season.

The Cougars had unleashed a 14-6 run (which included a stretch of nearly five minutes without an Eastern field goal) to end the first half with a 37-29 advantage.

Both teams struggled with their shooting early, combining to go 2-for-9 off the opening tip. Slanovec opened the scoring two minutes in with a step-back shot, just catching a foot on the three-point line. Six minutes in, the sophomore drained a long three with a hand in his face and then pump-faked, drove and hit a runner on the next possession to put the Cougars up 11-5 early.

With nine minutes remaining in the half, two quick Eagles baskets to tie had the Eastern crowd in a frenzy again, but Little drove hard and was fouled, making both freebies to put MU up 20-18.

A minute later, Johnson worked his way into the lane, drew a triple-team and kicked the ball out to Mark Williams for a wide-open three, but Eastern again tied the game on a three-pointer.

Williams got inside his man for two points on the next possession. Del Prete scored on MU's next two possessions to put the Cougars up 29-23 and force Eastern to call the game's first timeout after a frantic opening 15 minutes.

After a charge call on Eastern, Johnson again got into the lane and dished to Eichhorst for an eight-point Cougar lead. The Eagles broke the 8-0 run with a free throw.

Johnson's long three with 2:30 left on the clock gave Misericordia its largest lead of the half 34-24. Eichhorst had a nice put-back seconds before the buzzer after Eastern had pulled back to within six.