Both the men's and women's basketball teams at Misericordia find themselves right in the middle of their respective playoff races as they enter the final five games of their 2009-10 Freedom Conference campaigns.

Each Cougar team has an opportunity to improve its standing tomorrow night when Eastern comes to the Anderson Center. Due to weather, the contests have been moved to 6 and 8 PM.

On Wednesday, the MU men held off a late Colonel run to earn a season sweep of Wilkes and improve to 5-4 in league play. The victory, coupled with Manhattanville's loss to DeSales, allowed the Cougars to move into sole possession of fourth place in the Freedom standings.

In an early-season loss to Eastern (6-3, second place), Dom Del Prete (the December/January Wendy's Misericordia Athlete of the Month) had a team-high 22 points and Jeff Slanovec shot 6-of-9 from behind the arc.

The Eagles stormed back from a 13-point second half deficit to win thanks in large part to Jason Reels (10-of-16, 29 points, seven rebounds). For the season, Eastern has been led by guard Martin Soaries (17.3 ppg).

The Misericordia women improved to 6-3 by beating Wilkes on Wednesday and currently sit in third place in the Freedom Conference, just a game behind Manhattanville and Delaware Valley.

The struggles of Eastern (0-9) and Wilkes (1-8) have complicated the women's race as King's currently sits outside the top-four despite a winning record (5-4). With such a small margin of error, the Cougars cannot afford to fall victim to a hungry Eagles team that does feature several dangerous players.

Forward Bekah Roland has team-highs in scoring (12.3 ppg) and rebounding (7.2 rpg). Freshman Sam Weaver is third in the league with 26 blocks. The Eagles have been hurt by the loss of Hannah Tobin, who was in the top-20 in the Freedom last season for both scoring and rebounding.

Earlier this season at Eastern, MU's Christine Marks (also a Wendy's Athlete of the Month selection) and Jesse Robinson combined to shoot 27 free throw attempts, more than triple the entire Eagles roster. The sophomore pair rank among the best free throw shooters in the league and will look to get themselves to the line again tomorrow night.

The Cougars have four of the Freedom Conference's top 20 scorers this season: Marks (15.4 ppg, fourth), Robinson (14.1, fifth), Tyann McDaniel (10.0, 14th) and Courtney Sykes (8.4, 20th).