Wilkes Men's Basketball Opens Season with Big Win over Penn State Scranton

WILKES-BARRE – The Wilkes University men's basketball team opened the 2019-2020 season with a 122-69 win over Penn State Scranton at the Marts Center in non-conference action on Friday evening. This game was the Colonels largest margin of victory since defeating Clarks Summit by a 106-55 final on December 1, 2018.

Wilkes now stands at 1-0.

The Colonels began the game on a 9-2 run with points from Nickerson DeMelfi (Newbury Park, CA/Newbury Park), Derek Heiserman (Lansdale, PA/North Penn), and Mark Mullins (Binghamton, NY/Chenango Valley).

Leading by eight at 23-15 with 13:04 left in the first half, Wilkes went on a 16-0 run, racing to a 39-15 lead with 9:39 on the clock. From there the Colonels cruised to halftime, holding a 63-34 entering the break.

The second started the same as the first with Wilkes using a 9-0 run over the first 90 seconds of the final half, leading 72-34. The Colonels maintained the lead, reaching 100 points with just over nine minutes left in the game.

Rob Pecorelli (Huntington, NY/Harborfields) and Mullins led the way for the Colonels as both finished with 21 points. Pecorelli added eight assists and eight rebounds while Mullins had 10 rebounds and five assists. DeMelfi completed his first collegiate contest with 19 points, five rebounds, and four assists while Sean Coller (Hershey, PA/Hershey) contributed 11 points. Donovan Breeding (Manassas, VA/Osbourn) added 16 points and four rebounds in 14 minutes off the bench to round out the double-digit scorers.

Matt Dessoye paced the Lions, finishing with 19 points while Arel Lamour added 14 points.

Wilkes finished with 22 points off of 20 Penn State Scranton turnovers and the Colonels bench outscored the Lions bench 44-21. Wilkes dominated in the paint 54-34 and added 18 second-chance points.

The Colonels return to action on Tuesday when they will host Penn State Hazleton inside the Marts Center with tip-off scheduled for 7:00 p.m.