Box Score The Misericordia University men's basketball team opened Freedom Conference play with an 81-72 victory over visiting FDU-Florham on Wednesday night at the Anderson Center.

Joe Busacca led four Cougars in double figures with a season-high 25 points while Steve Ware and James Hawk added 11 points each and Jesse Urich finished with 10 points. Ware added 13 rebounds to earn his second double-double of the season.

FDU-Florham opened the game on a 14-7 run, but MU responded with a 23-2 run over the next eight minutes.

MU took its first lead of the game at 19-16, following back-to-back three-point buckets from Urich. Michael Brunson, Jacob Battle, Griffin Sponaugle and Ware were also key in MU's run that led to a 14-point lead at 30-16 with 4:34 left in the first half.

Sponaugle completed a three-point play, Busacca hit a pull up jumper in the lane and Hawk rebounded his own miss and finished strong to give MU a 36-20 lead later in the half.

Donte Ali responded for the Devils with two free throws and a dunk while Steve Herdiman nailed a long-range jumper to bring FDU-Florham within 36-25 with just over two minutes left in the half.

Anibal Villa and Jesse Oringer chipped in with buckets to cut the Cougars' lead to nine with 55 seconds left in the half.

Battle nailed a long-range jumper from right in front of the Devils' bench with just 20 seconds left and the Cougars' forced an FDU turnover at the other end to close out the half with a 41-29 lead.

Busacca opened the second half with an easy layup. Hawk added a block and Ware knocked down two free throws to extend the Cougars' lead back to 16 points at 25-29 with 18:46 left.

The Devils cut the MU lead to nine twice more over the next six minutes, but Busacca seemed to come up with an answer every time. With 11:52 left in the game he picked up a steal, drove the length of the floor and then converted a three-point play to make it a 13-point game.

Ware then had a thundering dunk in the lane while Hawk added two more free throws and a put back to give MU an 18-point lead, its largest of the night, with 9:46 left.

FDU-Florham started to chip away at the Cougars' lead and came as close as five after Herdiman hit a three-pointer with 56 seconds left.

However, Busacca, Urich and Ware combined to go 6-6 from the line in the final minute and the Cougars hung on for the 81-72 victory.

With the win, MU improves to 6-1 on the season while the Devils fell to 1-5.

The Cougars continue Freedom Conference play, Saturday afternoon at 3:00 at DeSales.