The Misericordia men's basketball team held off a late rally from Eastern to capture a 77-71 victory in Freedom Conference play on Saturday afternoon in the Anderson Center.
 
Steve Ware led three Cougars in double-figures with 18 points and eight rebounds while Joe Busacca finished with 15 points and James Hawk added 10 points and six boards. Erik Kerns ripped down a team-high nine rebounds to go along with eight points.
 
The Cougars got out to a sluggish start, allowing the Eagles to take an early 7-0 advantage in the game's first five minutes.
 
Jesse Urich drained a three-pointer from the right wing to give MU its first basket of the game at the 14:32 mark of the opening half.
 
Just minutes later Kern connected off the glass and Ware added four straight buckets to give the Cougars their first lead of the game at 16-10 with 9:20 left in the half.
 
Hawk picked up his first dunk of the game and Patrick Widdoss, Jamie Egan and Kerns added buckets to help MU close out the half on a 16-7 run and take a 32-17 lead at the half.
 
The Cougars dominated the opening minutes of the second half with buckets from Ware, Busacca, Kerns and Urich, but it was Hawk who beat everyone down the floor and delivered a one-handed slam to give MU its largest lead of the game at 60-41 with 6:46 left to play.
 
The Eagles rallied over the next four minutes and Tarek Hamzeh drained a three to cut the Cougar's lead to just four with 1:58 left to play.
 
However, Ware and Egan answered with layups of their own to extend the lead to eight with one minute left.
 
Busacca and Griffin Sponaugle put the game out of reach by going 6-6 from the stripe and MU held on for the six-point victory.
 
The Cougars have now won six straight games, improving to 13-4 and 5-1 in the Freedom Conference. The Eagles fell to 7-10 and 3-3 in the conference.
 
MU continues Freedom Conference play, Wednesday night at Delaware Valley at 8:00.