The Misericordia men's basketball team will go for back-to-back MAC Freedom titles after knocking off Wilkes, 72-58, Wednesday night at the Marts Center in Wilkes-Barre.

It will be a rematch of last year's title game with the Cougars playing DeSales after the Bulldogs defeated Eastern, Wednesday. This year's game will be at DeSales, Saturday, after the Cougars defeated the Bulldogs, 78-75, at Misericordia last season.

The Cougars came into tonight's contest looking for revenge after getting swept by Wilkes in the regular season.

Jason Kenny led the way with 29 points and 11 rebounds. He took over late in the game, scoring 10 of the final 13 Cougar points to secure a spot in the championship game. Noah Rivera contributed 16 points and 12 rebounds and Tony Harding chipped in with 15 points.

Kenny opened the scoring for the Cougars with a jump shot from the left elbow to give MU an early 2-0 lead, but Wilkes responded, going on 12-4 run before the Cougars answered back with a layup by Rivera and five points by Kenny on a three-pointer and two free throws to give Misericordia a 13-12 lead.

After Wilkes took an 18-15 lead, the Cougars responded with a 7-0 run on a layup by Alec Rodway and five points from Harding to give MU a four-point lead with 6:50 to go before the half.

Before the half, Kenny gave Misericordia a 32-31 lead on a driving layup, finishing with his left hand. On the other end, Patrick Douthit preserved the halftime lead with big block on Landon Henry, who was driving to the basket as time was running down.

The second half was back-and-forth for over 10 minutes, with neither team taking a lead larger than four points. With 8:37 remaining, Kenny created space with a nasty crossover and drilled a three from the left wing to give Misericordia a 52-47 lead.

Stone McCreary gave the Cougars a six-point lead at 57-51 by drilling a three off an assist from Tre Fields who collected the ball down low in a scramble.

After a couple of Rivera free throws, Kenny took over, driving to the basket for tough layups on back-to-back possessions. Kenny continued to do what was working, driving to the basket again with 2:53 remaining to give the Cougars a 66-53 lead.

The Colonels responded with five straight, but Fields delivered another big assist, this time finding Rivera for a wide open layup to push the Misericordia lead back up to 10.

Kenny was then able to ice the game at the line, hitting four straight free throws to secure the victory.