The Misericordia men's basketball team used a second half surge to move past DeSales, 99-76, Saturday afternoon at the Anderson Center.

Jason Kenny had 21 points, five assists and five rebounds. Tre Fields had 19 points and eight rebounds. Tony Harding had 17 points while Griffin Sponaugle had 13 points and six assists. James Hawk had 14 points, six rebounds and two blocks.

The Bulldogs opened the game on a 9-2 run in the first three and a half minutes. Sponaugle drained a three in the left corner, Hawk hit a lefty hook in the paint, and then he found Kenny cutting backdoor for an easy layup. Harding splashed a deep three from the right wing to make the score 12-11.

The teams traded buckets over the next couple of minutes before MU began to take control. Sponaugle hit a top of the key three and Kenny slashed inside and finished in traffic. DeSales scored, Stone McCreary buried a deep three from the right wing and Fields hit a three of his own to make it 29-19. He then drove baseline on the right side and finished with a reverse layup. Hawk scored inside to cap the 15-2 run and make the score 33-19 MU with just over nine minutes left.

DeSales wouldn't go away, and a corner three cut the Misericordia lead to four at 45-41. Rivera found Harding on the right wing for three as the Cougars went into the half with a 48-41 lead.

The second half started with Fields draining a jumper from above the foul line and Harding followed that up with a tough drive in traffic to push the Misericordia lead back up to nine.

The Cougars couldn't pull away over the next nine minutes as they never led by more than 14. The Bulldogs scored on a layup to make it 73-61 Misericordia with 11:41 to go.

Rivera found Fields with a mismatch underneath and Fields converted the short jumper while being fouled. He made the foul shot, MU got a stop and then Sponaugle lobbed a pass over the defense to Harding who laid it in off the glass. On their next offensive possession, Kenny grabbed his own miss and put it back in to make it 80-61 MU with 9:55 remaining. The Bulldogs never got closer than 15 the rest of the way.

The Cougars scored 48 points in the paint and scored 24 of their points off turnovers.

The Cougars move to 3-3 on the year and they will play at Wilkes, Wednesday at 8:00.