WILKES-BARRE – Wilkes University's sophomore Trent Fisher (Sellersville, PA/Pennridge) recorded his eighth double-double of the season finishing with 23 points and 21 rebounds to lead the Colonels past visiting King's College 78-68 in overtime in MAC Freedom action Tuesday night.
 
With the win Wilkes improved to 8-15 overall and 5-10 in league games while King's fell to 7-14 overall and 3-12 in MAC Freedom contests.
 
The teams traded baskets early in the first half before a baseline jumper from Drake Marshall (Gainesville, VA/Patriot) and subsequent trey from Sean Coller (Hershey, PA/Hershey) gave Wilkes a 14-9 lead forcing a King's timeout with 14:37 on the clock. After another triple this time from Matthew Davidheiser (Reading, PA/Exeter Township), King's responded with an 11-5 run to cut the Colonels advantage to 22-20 as Wilkes used its first timeout of the contest with 8:03 left in the half.
 
After King's tied the game on its next possession, scores from Collin Post, Jason Eberhart (Lebanon, PA/Cedar Crest) and Nickerson DeMelfi (Newbury Park, CA/Newbury Park) put the Colonels in front 28-22 with just under five minutes left in the opening twenty minutes. Wilkes then closed the half on an 11-6 run capped off by a Coller triple to take a 39-31 advantage to the break.
 
Wilkes continued to shoot well from the field to start the second half as buckets from Fisher and Cayden Merrifield (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) and another trey from Davidheiser gave the Colonels their largest lead of the game at 50-38 with 16:18 left to play.
 
Davidheiser stayed hot two possessions later canning his third three-pointer of the game and Jackson Shafer (Milford, PA/Delaware Valley) scored in the paint off a feed from Merrifield to give Wilkes a 57-42 lead with under 12 minutes on the clock.
 
The Colonels lead stayed in double figures over the next seven minutes of play before a 9-2 Monarch run kept the visitors within reach trailing 63-60 with 2:51 remaining.  King's then sank one of two free throws on its next possession before a Wilkes turnover led to two more King's free throws. The Monarchs connected on the first but missed the second and still trailed 63-62 where they were forced to foul with under twenty seconds on the clock.
 
Merrifield calmly made two free throws to extend the Colonels lead to 65-62 with eleven second left. After one of two free throws from King's, Fisher was fouled and missed the front end of a one-and-one where King's rebounded and called a timeout once the ball crossed half court setting up the final play with 3.6 seconds remaining.
 
King's got a look from the outside that was off the mark, but the rebound caromed to a Monarch player where the put-back was good as time expired sending the game to overtime.
 
Merrifield began the overtime session with a three and Davidheiser canned his fourth trey of the game plus the foul to put the Colonels ahead 72-66 at the 3:10 mark. One possession later Fisher hammered home a baseline dunk followed by a put-back dunk that put the game away with just under two minutes left in the extra period.
 
Fisher's 21 boards was good for third-most all-time in a single game in program history. Davidheiser joined Fisher in double figures posting 15 points and four rebounds. Merrifield enjoyed an outstanding all-around game finishing with 10 points and eight assists.
 
Wilkes concludes the regular season Saturday with a road matchup at Stevens Institute of Technology. Tip-off is set for 3:00 p.m. in Hoboken, N.J.