Freshman Joe Busacca came off the bench to lead all scorers with 19 points while leading the Misericordia University men's basketball team to a 78-51 victory over FDU-Florham, Saturday at the Anderson Center.

Senior Ethan Eichhorst and junior Steve Artzerounian both added 16 points for MU.

The Cougars found themselves in a 7-4 hole early in the first half when Eichhorst hit a jumper and made two free-throws to give MU their first lead of the game.  Busacca made a driving lay-up to give the Cougars a 10-7 lead.

Eichhorst made a reverse lay-up from Steve Artzerounian to put the Cougars up 16-15 with 10 minutes left to play in the first half. 

Jerry Reilly hit a shot-clock-beating three-pointer from the corner to break a 19-19 tie and put MU up by three. 

Eichhorst finished the first half with a three from the top of the key to give the Cougars a 37-31 lead at the half.

Eichhorst picked up where he left off in the second half, hitting a wide open trey from the top of the key to start the second half.  This sparked a 19-7 run for the Cougars, highlighted with MU shooting 9-10 from the charity stripe. 

Busacca went coast-to-coast for a lay-in and Brandon Stone hit two free-throws to put the Cougars up 64-43.  Stone made two more free-throws to give MU their biggest lead of the game at 75-47.

MU made 21 of 26 free throws and shot 80% from behind the arc in the second half and shot 51.2% from the field in the game.

Misericordia improved to 13-6 (5-3) and will continue Freedom play when they host Wilkes, Wednesday evening at 8:00 pm.