Lesko and Merrifield Have Career-High Scoring Days As Wilkes Men's Basketball Earns Victory Over Arcadia
GLENSIDE, PA – Lucas Lesko (Northampton, PA/Northampton) and Cayden Merrifield (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) had career-highs in scoring as the Wilkes University men's basketball team went on the road and downed Arcadia University 76-70 in Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom (MAC Freedom) action in Saturday afternoon action inside Alumni Gymnasium.
Wilkes is now 8-6 on the season and improves to 3-2 in the conference. Arcadia drops to 5-8 on the year and is now 2-4 in the MAC Freedom.
The game started off with both teams turning the ball over and missing their shots in the first two minutes before Arcadia got on the board first with a Nas Johnson layup. Lesko then answered with his own layup to get Wilkes their first points of the game. Both teams would begin to trade buckets and the lead, with a three pointer from Matthew Davidheiser (Reading, PA/Exeter Township) that was responded to by the Knight's Justin Money to make the game 8-7 five minutes into the action.
Arcadia slowly built up their lead as Jalen Watkins scored four of his to give the Knights a 15-9 lead. Merrifield would get the Colonels tied at 15-15 halfway through the period as he converted on back-to-back threes. Arcadia kept the Colonels at bay, retaking the lead at 28-22 with 3:18 left before halftime. Lucas and Merrifield scored the last seven points in the half to give Wilkes a 29-28 lead heading into intermission.
Lesko started the second period with six straight points for the Colonels while Merrifield made his third three of the contest to build a double-digit lead for Wilkes at 38-28. Arcadia would score the 10 of the next 12 points behind three-pointers from Money and Dom Vazquez to make the contest 40-38, forcing Wilkes to call a timeout.
Jack Argento (Hershey, PA/Hershey) would hit a three-pointer after the timeout, helping Wilkes shoot 50% from beyond the arc in the second half as the Colonels would go 4-8 in the period. Arcadia would keep up with Wilkes and have the game tied at 53-53 at 8:43 left in the game as Joshua Okocha hit a three pointer for the Knights. But Merrifield would score 11 of his career-high 25 points in the second half while Lucas had 13 of his career-high 28 points in this period as the Colonels would begin to pull away from the Knights. Wilkes shot 15 of their 25 shots in the second half, shooting 60% and making 13-of-19 free throws to get the Colonels ahead of Arcadia and earn the victory 76-70.
Wilkes shot 48.1%, going 26-of-54 in the game. The Colonels made 9-of-24 (37.5%) three-pointers and 15-23 from the line. Arcadia made 24 of their 57 shots, going 42.1 percent from the field and 34.5% from beyond the arc as they went 10-29. The Knights also made 12 of 20 free throw shots.
Lesko and Merrifield both had career-highs in points, as Lesko led all scorers with 28 points on the day, adding five rebounds, three assists, and a block on the afternoon. Merrifield followed behind with 25 points, shooting 4-6 from beyond the arc in the contest as he led the Colonels in assists with five and steals with four. Davidhesier had a team high six rebounds while having two steals and seven points on the day, going 2-5 from three. Joey Zvorsky (New Cumberland, PA/Cedar Cliff) tied Merrifield with five rebounds, while Drake Marshall (Gainesville, VA/Patriot) and Jason Eberhart (Lebanon, PA/Cedar Crest) earned four rebounds apiece.
Wilkes will return home to the Marts Center this Wednesday as they face Misercordia University in MAC Freedom action at 6:00 p.m.
