The Misericordia University men's basketball team will host King's College in a Freedom Conference semifinal, Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. in the Anderson Center.
The contest will mark the first time the two local rivals will meet in the post-season.
Ticket prices are: Adults ($6), Seniors ($4), Students ($2) and children under six (free).
 
Misericordia, 19-6, is the top seed and is making its sixth consecutive trip to the Freedom Tournament.  King's is seeded fourth after finishing the regular season at 15-10.
 
Misericordia is 11-2 in the Anderson Center this season, including a 70-41 win over King's a month ago.  The Monarchs are making their first appearance in the Freedom championships since 2010.

The teams split a pair of meetings during the regular season with each team winning on their home floor.

"Our first goal from the beginning of the season was to secure home court advantage for the playoffs," said Misericordia head coach Trevor Woodruff.  "It's always exciting to have the opportunity to compete for a championship and it's even more special to be able to do it on your home floor."

The game features the top two defensive teams in the Freedom Conference with Misericordia allowing just 60.5 points per game and King's second at 63.5.  The Cougars also lead the league in field goal percentage defense (36.9%), three-point percentage defense (31.1%) and blocked shots (4.3).

Misericordia is led by the senior duo of Joe Busacca and Steve Ware, both members of the 1,000 point club, and tied for sixth in the Freedom in scoring at 14.7 points per game.

Ware is also fourth in the Freedom with 7.9 rebounds per game and is second on the team in steals and blocked shots.

Busacca joins Ware as the team's top scorer at 14.7 ppg and leads the team with 3.0 assists and 1.6 steals per game.

Griffin Sponaugle adds 8.8 points and 2.8 rebounds per game while first-year center James Hawk averages 7.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and leads the Freedom with 2.0 blocks per game.

Jamie Egan and Jesse Urich have split time in the starting line-up at shooting guard and both average nearly 5.0 ppg.

Erik Kerns adds 6.4 ppg and is second on the team with 5.9 rpg as the first man off the bench.

Sophomore Dan Rutecki leads King's in scoring and rebounding with 14.9 points and 7.0 rebounds per game.  He leads the Freedom in field goal percentage (51.9%) and is fourth in scoring and fifth in rebounding.

Chris Fazzini adds 11.0 ppg while Tom Heston adds 6.2 points, 5.1 rpg and a team-high 2.4 assists per game.

John Fazzini (8.7 ppg) and Dan Borner (7.3 ppg) round out the starting line-up for King's.

The Misericordia/King's winner will advance to Saturday's championship game where they will face the winner of Delaware Valley/DeSales for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.