Jason Kenny and Tre Fields were nearly perfect, combing for 64 points on 20-25 shooting as the Misericordia men's basketball team defeated King's College, 94-85, Thursday night in Wilkes-Barre.
Kenny finished the night with 37 points on 10-12 shooting. He hit six of his eight three-point attempts and went 11-13 from the foul line. Fields nearly matched him, finishing with a career high 27 points on 10-13 shooting including 4-6 from behind the arc.
The Cougars improve to 13-9 overall and 8-3 in the MAC Freedom as King's falls 10-12 and 6-5 in conference play.
Kenny and Fields were not the only Cougars with the hot hand as the entire team shot 57% from the field and were just as good from long distance, making 13 of their 23 attempts.
Kenny was on fire from the beginning, hitting his first eight shots of the night, including 5-5 from behind the arc and all four of his foul shots. With 1:51 remaining in the half, he missed his first shot of the night to finish the half shooting 89% from the field.
The Monarchs took an early 8-7 lead but that was when Kenny started his 3-point barrage, hitting four straight in a span of 2 minutes and 11 seconds to take a 21-11 lead with 11:26 to go in the half.
With 4:25 left before halftime, Fields and Kenny hit three pointers on back-to-back possessions to build their lead to 18 at 41-23.
King's cut the deficit to 10 with 50 seconds left, but two Kenny free throws, giving him 25 points in the half, extended it back to 12.
In the second half, Kenny picked up where he left off, hitting a layup and a three on his first two shots to build the Cougar lead back up to 15 with 17:56 to go.
Stone McCreary got into the action, hitting his first of two threes on the night with 17:10 left. Fields followed with another three on the next possession to keep the lead at 15.
Fields hit his next two three-point attempts and converted on a three-point play with 9:32 left to give the Cougars their largest lead of the second half at 78-60.
Facing a 15 point deficit with 3:22 left in the game, King's started a furious comeback, going on a 10-0 run to pull within five at 88-83 with 1:07 remaining.
After Noah Rivera missed two free throws with 40 seconds remaining and up by six, the Monarchs had a chance to cut it to a one possession game, but Lenny Radziak could not handle a pass as the ball went out of bounds and back to Misericordia.
Free throws by Kenny and Tyerell Mann sealed the game for the Cougars.
Rivera led the team with 12 rebounds and Patrick Douthit dished out a career-high seven assists.
Misericordia will be back in action, Saturday at 3:00 when they come back to Wilkes-Barre to take on first-place Wilkes looking to avenge an 87-82 overtime loss back on January 24.
