Box Score Justine Seely and Lauren Smicherko combined for 39 points to lead the Misericordia University women's basketball team to a 66-56 win over Wilkes in their Freedom Conference opener, Wednesday night at the Marts Center.

Seely did her damage from the floor as she was 8-14 while recording her third career double-double while Smicherko got most of her production at the foul line (11-15).

After trailing by 12 points early in the first half, the Cougars rallied to take a 32-29 halftime lead and eventually built a 16-point lead in the second half.

Down 18-6 just over six minutes into the game, Katie Drayton sank a three-pointer and Smicherko converted a steal into a layup to cut the deficit to 18-11.

Wilkes went ahead 26-15, but the Cougars held the Colonels scoreless for more than nine minutes as MU closed the half on a 17-3 run.

Hannah Seely and Justine Seely had back-to-back layups and Justine Seely followed with a three-point play to get within 26-22 with 7:54 left in the half.

Nikki Baro grabbed a defensive rebound and knocked down a jumper at the other end of the floor and Justine Seely's jumper tied the score, 26-26, with 5:18 to go.

Shannon Croasdale converted a steal into a layup for a 28-26 lead and Justine Seely made it 30-26.

After Amanda Greene's layup put the Cougars up 32-26, Elena Stambone's three-pointer at the buzzer broke Wilkes' long scoreless drought to cut MU's lead to 32-29 at halftime.

The teams exchanged baskets over the first four minutes of the second half before Croasdale, Lauren Oertner and Hannah Seely combined for six straight points for a 43-33 lead with just under 14:00 to play.

Smicherko's layup gave the Cougars a 45-35 lead and her three-point play made it 48-37 with 11:11 remaining.

Justine Seely converted two consecutive steals into layups for a 54-40 advantage and Hannah Seely, Justine Seely and Nikki Baro all added free throws for a 57-41 lead with 5:19 left.

Wilkes cut the lead to six with 16 seconds to play, but Smicherko sank four free throws in the closing seconds.

Hannah Seely had eight points and nine rebounds and Nikki Baro had seven points and seven rebounds.

Smicherko had four assists and five of MU's 18 steals.

The Cougars improved to 3-2 overall and 1-0 in the Freedom.  The Cougars will host Manhattanville, Saturday at 1:00.