The Misericordia University men's basketball team couldn't overcome a strong first half by PSU-Behrend, leading to a 53-42 loss in the consolation game of the CSI Tournament of Heroes in Staten Island, NY on Monday evening.
 

Joe Busacca led the Cougars with 16 points and nine rebounds, just missing his first double-double of the season while Erik Kerns finished with 12 points and five boards in the loss.

The Lions outrebounded the Cougars 39-31, including a 12-6 advantage in offensive boards.

With the loss, MU falls to 7-4 while the Lions improve to 8-1 on the season. 

Neither team shot the ball well in the opening minutes with the Lions leading just 9-6 with 10 minutes left in the half. 

Kerns came up with an offensive board and put it right back up for the easy bucket at the eight minute mark. He then drilled a mid range jumper off the dribble in the Cougars' next possession to make it an 11-10 game with seven minutes left to play in the first.

The Lions then caught fire, closing out the half on a 17-4 run to close out the half, which included a three-point jumper by Keith Wallace with just seconds left in the first. 

The Cougars were just 5-22 from the floor in the first half and turned the ball over eight time while the Lions finished the half 9-27 with four turnovers. 

MU had more success in the opening minutes of the second half. Steve Ware started the run with a finger roll over a defender on the low block,

Busacca connected on four of his six free throw shots and later took his defender to the rack, finishing the drive on the right side of the rim to make it a 30-22 game with 15:36 left. 

Busacca drilled a long three from the far wing. Ware and Busacca followed with back to back buckets to bring MU with three at 34-31 with 10:06 left to play. 

The senior guard began to take over the game at the five minute mark, dialing up another long range jumper and tying the game at 38-38 with a strong drive to the hoop. 

Nick DeLisio then answered for the Lions with two layups and a three pointer from the top of the key to give PSU-Behrend a 45-38 lead with 2:18 left to play. 

Kerns finished strong at the rim out of an MU timeout to bring the Cougars back to within five at 45-40. However, DeLisio struck again from beyond the arc to extend the Lions lead to 48-40 with just over one minute to play. 

The late run proved to be too much for the Cougars as the Lions picked up the 53-42 victory. 

DeLisio led the Lions with 13 points while Malquan Pullium added 12 points and four boards.

The Cougars return to action Saturday afternoon at 2:00 against Haverford in the Anderson center.