The Misericordia men's basketball team fell to the Colonels of Wilkes, 86-72, Saturday afternoon at a packed Marts Center in Wilkes-Barre. Despite the result, the Cougars clinched a spot in the MAC Freedom Tournament.

Tony Harding led the Misericordia with 25 points while Jason Kenny added 18 points and seven assists and Noah Rivera pulled down a team-high nine rebounds.

Early in the game, the Cougars continued their hot shooting from their game against King's by hitting four of their first eight three pointers.

Stone McCreary hit from deep to give the Cougars an early 5-3 lead and Harding started a 14-3 run for the Cougars by hitting from the right wing. During the run, Tyerell Mann and Kenny hit back-to-back threes, helping the Cougars jump out to a 22-13 lead.

Wilkes came right back, going on a 12-3 run in to tie the game at 29 with 3:10 remaining in the half. The Colonels took the lead with 1:42 to go and hit a three at the buzzer to take a 34-29 lead at the break, as Misericordia was held scoreless in the final 4:32 of the first half.

The Cougars battled back in the second half, going on a 10-0 run early to take a 44-42 lead with 13:34 left in the game. McCreary hit back-to-back layups to even the score followed by a Harding jumper to regain the lead.

Neither team had a lead larger than four the next five minutes as both teams were looking to pull away. With Wilkes up six with 8:09 to play, Harding and McCreary each hit a three sandwiched around a Colonel layup to cut their deficit to two.

That was as close as the Cougars got, however, as Wilkes proceeded to go on a 14-3 run to take control of the game.

Misericordia is back in action, Tuesday against DeSales at the Anderson Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 8:00.