Box Score The Misericordia University men's basketball team never trailed and held off a late rally to defeat the #9/#21 University of Scranton, 49-44, in their home opener at the Anderson Center on Wednesday night.

The Cougars were terrific from the free-throw line, cashing in on 25 of their 31 attempts. Steve Ware led MU with 10 points and seven rebounds while Jacob Battle and Joe Busacca added eight and seven points, respectively.

MU jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead in the first half, following back-to-back layups from Ware and a Griffin Sponaugle three-pointer from the corner.

Scranton picked up its first bucket when Ethan Danzig hit a mid-range jumper to make it 7-2 with 12:50 left in the first half.

Cael Evans answered with a layup and Battle then extended the Cougars' lead to 10 with a three-pointer from the far corner with 11:33 left to play in the first half.

The Royals brought the game to within six after John Vitkus hit a jumper.

Jesse Urich then drilled another long range shot pushing the Cougars' lead to 16-7. MU closed out the first half on a 13-7 run, highlighted by buckets from James Hawk, Erik Kerns, Battle and Busacca.

Scranton battled in the second half, outscoring MU 30-20. However, every time the Royals looked as if they would take the lead, the Cougars came up with a big play on defense. Sponaugle and Busacca had two steals each in the second half while Kerns, Ware and Evans came up with huge rebounds late in the game.

The Cougars knocked down 16 of their 21 free throws in the second half and they needed all of them to come away with the victory.

Scranton rallied in the second half, coming as close as 45-44 with just 30 seconds left in the game. However, Battle hit two big free throws with 17 seconds left and the game and Jesse Urich added two more with two seconds left to secure the 49-44 victory for the Cougars.

Brenda Boken led the Royals with 19 points and eight rebounds while Justin Klingman added 11 points in the loss.

With the win, MU improves to 3-0 while Scranton falls to 2-1.

The Cougars return to action, Friday night at 8:00 against Baptist Bible College in the opening game of the McCarthy Tire Laurel Line Tournament. The winner of Friday night's game moves on to the championship game Sunday afternoon at 4:00 while the losers of the Friday night's games meet at 2:00 in the Anderson Center.