The Misericordia University men's basketball team dropped a nail-biter against DeSales, 73-70, Monday at the Anderson Center.

Noah Rivera recorded his second straight double-double and his seventh of the season. A junior forward, Rivera had a team-leading 20 points with 11 rebounds while shooting 7-13 from the field.

Jason Kenny scored 19 points with five assists, five steals and two rebounds. The senior currently leads the MAC Freedom in scoring with 22.2 points per game.

Tony Harding was the third Cougar to reach double-figures with 16 points. He grabbed eight rebounds and shot 4-9 from three-point range.

The Cougars were first to get on the board with a beautiful reverse layup from Stone McCreary after a feed from Kenny on the opening possession. However, the Bulldogs quickly took the lead with a three-pointer from Luke Connaghan at the other end. The tightly-contested opening half saw 10 lead changes and five ties.

Later in the half, Misericordia retook the lead with an 8-0 run that was capped off by a Rivera layup, which put the Cougars up 12-11. DeSales guard Matt Kachelries then hit a jumper at the other end to tilt the one point advantage in the Bulldog's favor.

After multiple lead changes and ties, Misericordia began to build some momentum with a strong ending to the first half.

Trailing by five points, Harding hit three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to give the Cougars a one point advantage and force DeSales to burn a timeout. After a Bulldog's layup attempted to quiet some of the Cougars' momentum, Misericordia ran off eight unanswered points with two buckets from Kenny and Rivera to take a seven point advantage.

Following a DeSales free throw and a last second bucket, the Cougars entered halftime with a 39-35 lead. Misericordia won the first half turnover battle by six points and outscored DeSales 16-3 on points off turnovers.

The Cougars started the second half with five unanswered buckets and forced DeSales to burn an early timeout. Kenny started the half with a deep three-pointer and Harding scored off a second chance rebound to give Misericordia a nine point lead.

After Alex House attempted to stop the bleeding with a three ball, the Cougars responded with consecutive three-pointers from Alec Rodway and Harding. A few possessions later, Rivera hit a turnaround jumper in the paint to give the Cougars their largest lead at 14 points and cap-off a 13-3 rally to open the half.

While Misericordia landed several blows in the opening four minutes of the half, it wasn't enough to put away DeSales. The Bulldogs clawed back into the contest with a 20-6 run, which lasted just over seven minutes, to knot the game at 58-58. Minutes later, Kachelries would give DeSales their first lead of the half with a go-ahead three-pointer.

DeSales built its lead to four points, but Harding gave the Cougars life with a three-pointer to cut the Bulldogs' lead to one point with 2:39 remaining.

Nearly a minute later, Patrick Douthit forced a key turnover with man-to-man pressure and Kenny split a pair of free throws at the other end to tie the game at 70 -70 with 1:32 remaining. However, DeSales would end the game with three unanswered points and never surrender its lead after a desperation heave from Kenny fell short with seconds remaining.

The Cougars fell to 11-8 overall with a 4-4 MAC Freedom mark while the Bulldogs remain at the top of the conference with a 7-1 record. Misericordia will travel to Delaware Valley, Wednesday at 8:00 PM.