WILKES-BARRE, PA – Wilkes nailed a season-high fourteen three-pointers, three off the school record set in 1996, en route to defeating PSU Wilkes-Barre by a score of 78-53 on Thursday evening. 

Wilkes snaps a five-game losing skid with the win and improves to 7-6 overall while PSU Wilkes-Barre drops to 5-8 on the season.

Steve Stravinski (Pittston, PA/Pittston) and Alec Wizar (Lebanon, PA/Annville Cleona) got the 3-point barrage going in the first minute of the game as they both hit their first 3-point attempts putting Wilkes up 6-0.  Tyler Jackson (Cresskill, NJ/Cresskill) hit a 3-pointer of his own extending the lead to 9-3 before PSU Wilkes-Barre went on a quick 4-0 run to close the gap to 9-7 with 16:23 left in the half. 

With the Colonels up 17-15 Jackson buried his second three of the game that helped spark a 25-6 run for the Colonels to close the half.  18-out-of-the-25 points scored during the run came from distance as the Colonels finished the final 9:23 of the half making 6-out-of-7 three-pointers.

Wilkes led comfortably at half 43-21 as they shot a blazing 53.3 percent (16-30) from the field including 60 percent from deep (9-15). Stravinski led all scorers with 11 at the break with Jackson and Zachary Brunner (Mechanicsburg, PA/Mechanicsburg) chipping in with eight.  Jackson dished out five dimes in the half to go along with just two turnovers.

The Mountain Lions shot 36.4 percent (8-22) from the floor, 16.7 percent (1-6) from deep and 33.3 percent (4-12) from the charity stripe.  Denzel Mensah scored nine in the first half with Austin Walker providing four points and five boards.

Wilkes extended their lead to 27 (53-26) at the start of the second half thanks in part to two Brunner layups and 3-point field goals from Wizar and Stravinski.  A deep 3-pointer from Jackson and nice inside move by Mason Gross (Hughestown, PA/Pittston) put the Colonels up 58-30 (their largest lead of the game) with 13:44 remaining in the game.  PSU Wilkes-Barre trimmed the lead to 18 with a 20-10 run with 4:59 to go but that was all the closer they would get as Wilkes went on to win 78-53.

For the game the Colonels shot 46 percent (29-63) from the floor and 56 percent (14-25) from distance.  Four Colonels scored in double-figures with 10 players scoring at least one point.  Wizar led all scorers with 17 points making five 3-pointers and grabbing eight boards.  Stravinski finished with 16 and seven boards, Brunner dumped in 16 and pulled down eight boards and Jackson poured in 11 and dished out six assists.

PSU Wilkes-Barre shot 39.6 percent (19-48) from the field 30.8 percent (4-13) from three-point range but struggled to make foul shots as they made only 39.3 percent (11-28) of their foul shots.  Mensah finished with 15 points and five boards, Walker scored 12 and grabbed seven boards with Bre'yan Jones adding seven points and a team-high 11 rebounds.

Wilkes returns to action Wednesday, January 14 when they travel to Misericordia University for an important Freedom Conference road test.  Game is slated to tip-off at 8:00 p.m.