Big Second Half Helps Wilkes Men's Basketball Advance to ECAC Quarterfinals
BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The Wilkes University men's basketball team outscored Brooklyn College 43-32 in the second half on their way to a 69-59 victory in the first round of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship Tournament on Wednesday night.
The win improves the Colonels to 19-9 on the season and pushes them on to the quarterfinals.
The Bulldogs held an early 10-4 lead five minutes into the game before Rob Pecorelli (Huntington, NY/Harborfields) and Jack Bova (Camillus, NY/West Genesee) hit a pair of three-pointers to tie things up at 10-10 halfway through the first half.
Brooklyn College responded with an 11-0 run to take a 21-10 lead at the 7:56 mark, forcing Wilkes to call a timeout.
The Colonels would start to chip away at the lead as a Connor Evans (Cicero, NY/Cicero-North Syracuse) triple cut the deficit to 25-20 with 3:01 to go until halftime. Less than a minute later, Marcus Robinson (Swedesboro, NJ/Kingsway Regional) made a pair of free throws followed by a Pecorelli jumper to trim the margin to one at 25-24.
The Bulldogs snapped the Colonels 7-0 run with a layup but Tommy Bowen (Hummelstown, PA/Lower Dauphin) made two free throws with two seconds remaining to send Wilkes into halftime down 27-26.
A Robinson three-pointer gave Wilkes their first lead since 4-3 just over three minutes into the second half at 32-31. Pecorelli hit one from three-point land to regain the lead for the Colonels at 37-35 and ignite a 13-0 run over the next 3:20 to stretch the lead to 48-35 at the 11:35 mark.
Brooklyn College would snap their scoreless streak but Wilkes continued to pull away as an Evans shot from beyond the arc gave the navy and gold their largest lead of the night at 61-41 with 6:43 remaining.
The Bulldogs had some fight left in them though as a 16-2 run pulled them to within six at 63-57 with 1:39 left in the game but the Colonels made their free throws in the closing seconds to leave Brooklyn with a 69-59 victory.
Pecorelli led the team with 21 points and 11 rebounds for the double-double. The Colonel upperclassmen refused to let this season end as Bowen (18), Evans (13) and Robinson (11) all scored in double figures.
Wilkes heads to Hood College, the host of the final three rounds, on Friday, March 1st for a quarterfinal matchup against Rutgers-Newark at 2:00 p.m.
