The Misericordia men's basketball team fell to #3 Wittenberg, 91-61, in the first round of the Division III Men's Basketball Tournament, Friday evening in Springfield, Ohio.

The Cougars kept it close early in the game but the Tigers started to pull away midway through the first half and never looked back as they advanced to the second round to face Wisconsin-Oshkosh who had defeated Marietta earlier in the day.

Jason Kenny led the Cougars with 17 points. Noah Rivera chipped in with 11 points and four rebounds and senior Tre Fields had 10 points in his final game in a Cougar uniform. Stone McCreary scored six points off the bench for MU. Bryce Mondorff, Brendan Leonard, Hunter George, Patrick Douthit, Owen Clark and Sean Gorman also found the scoring column for the first points in their respective NCAA Tournament careers.

The Tigers scored the first five points of the game before Rivera hit two free throws to get Misericordia on the board. A corner three by Fields helped kick start a 13-6 run for the Cougars to cut their deficit to just two at 18-16 with 13:15 left in the half.

After that run by the Cougars, Wittenberg started to pull away, going on a 17-2 run, getting seven points from Jacob Bertemes during the nearly seven-minute stretch.

A three-point play from Fields and a three-pointer from McCreary cut the Tigers lead to 48-31 with 1:26 before the break, but a 6-0 run by Wittenberg pushed their lead back up to 23 going into the locker room.

The Tigers continued to extend their lead in the second half, opening a lead as large as 31 points with 16:29 to go in the game.

A 5-0 run by the Cougars with 12:31 remaining cut their deficit to 25 at 69-44, but that was as close as Misericordia would get the rest of the way as Wittenberg cruised their way to victory.

Misericordia ends the 2017-18 season with a final record of 17-11.