Box Score The Misericordia University men's basketball team dropped its Freedom Conference opener in heartbreaking fashion, 72-70, in overtime Wednesday night at Wilkes.

Joe Busacca led four Cougars in double figures with 16 points while Steve Ware added 13 rebounds before fouling out in the second half.

Cael Evans added 13 points and a team-high seven rebounds and Matt Greene had 12 points.  Anthony Sergio added nine points on 3-4 shooting from behind the arc.

After battling back from a nine-point, second-half deficit, the Cougars took a 60-54ead with 5:01 left in regulation.

Wilkes rallied to take 64-62 lead with under a minute to play and Busacca's layup tied it with 22 seconds to go.

The Colonels missed the front end of a one-and-one to and MU missed two free throws with a chance to win with less than a second to play.

Busacca's layup gave the Cougars a 66-64 lead in overtime, but the Colonels scored seven straight points over three minutes to take a 71-66 lead with 45 seconds left in the extra session.

Erik Kerns made one-of-two free throws and Busacca sank a three-pointer to pull within 71-70 with 12 seconds to play.

After a Wilkes free throw made it 72-70, the Cougars had two chances to tie it, but missed a layup and a pair of free throws.

Misericordia shot 51.9% from the line for the game while Wilkes was just 10 of 20.

The Cougars were 24-53 (45.3%) from the floor, including 8-15 (53.3%) from three-point range.

The teams traded buckets throughout much of the first half before Wilkes scored six straight points to take a 29-20 lead with 4:42 left in the opening half.

Greene's  three-pointer cut the deficit to four, 35-31, with 1:30 to go before halftime, but MU trailed 39-32 at intermission.

Down 50-41 with 12:06 left in the second half, Greene connected on three consecutive three-pointers to cut the margin to 52-50 with 9:05 to go.

Evans sank a pair of free throws to tie it and a short jumper by Busacca gave the Cougars a 54-52 lead.

Sergio buried a pair of three-pointers to put MU ahead, 60-54, with 5:01 remaining.

Two more free throws from Evans made it 62-57, with 3:30 left, but Wilkes scored seven straight points to take a 64-62 lead to set the stage for Busacca's game-tying layup.

Misericordia, 3-3 (0-1), will host Manhattanville, Saturday at 3:00.