Gula and Zvorsky Career-High Scoring Lifts Wilkes Men's Basketball in Second Half over FDU-Florham
MADISON, N.J. - Zachary Gula (Walnutport, PA/Northampton) and Joey Zvorsky (New Cumberland, PA/Cedar Cliff) scored career-high in points while the Colonels had 52 points in the second half as the Wilkes University men's basketball team came back and took a 78-71 victory over FDU-Florham in Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom (MAC Freedom) action on Saturday.
Wilkes improves to 11-10 on the season and is now 6-6 in the conference while the Devils fall to 3-19 this year and 2-11 in MAC Freedom competition.
The first half began with Zvorsky and Drake Marshall (Gainesville, VA/Patriot) both scoring early for the Colonels as they got the first eight points between each other to give Wilkes an early 8-3 lead over FDU-Florham. Matt Johnson would make two layups for the Devils to cut Wilkes' lead before Jack Argento (Hershey, PA/Hershey) would make a jumper in the paint to extend the Colonels' lead 10-7.
Lucas Lesko (Northampton, PA/Northampton) would make three straight baskets, including two three-pointers as he would keep building up the Colonel lead, but Jamal Santana and Aidan Newman would make their own threes as the Devils would tie the game up at 22-22 with 8:54 left in the first period. Cayden Merrifield (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) would hit a three for Wilkes, but FDU-Florham would outscore the Colonels 18-4 in the last 6:46 of the first half to give the Devils a 40-26 halftime lead.
FDU-Florham would shoot 55.56 percent from 15-27 shooting in the first half while Wilkes only shot 35.71% off 10-28 shots.
The second half would see the Devils looking to keep up their lead as they would hit back-to-back three pointers to give them a 46-30 lead over Wilkes. Zvorsky and Gula would begin to get Wilkes back in the game as Zvorsky scored 10 of his career-high 16 points in the second half while Gula had all 22 points, which is also a career-high for him, in the second period for the Colonels.
After Mike Morrisey made a layup for FDU-Florham, Gula would score 13 straight points for Wilkes to get the game back tied at 53-53 with 7:35 left in the game. After another shot made by Matthew Johnson, Gula hit another three to give Wilkes a 56-55 lead they would hold onto for the rest of the half. Gula would score nine points in the final seven minutes while Merrifield would have eight points down that stretch, as Lesko and Zvorsky would help them outscore the Devils 25-16 to finish the game and give Wilkes a 78-71 win in conference action.
Wilkes shot 45.9% from the field, scoring 52 of their 78 points in the second half. The Colonels were 34.8 percent from beyond the arc and 77.8% from the free throw line. FDU-Florham finished shooting 49.0% on the court, with 36.0% from the three-point line and 80.0% on free throws.
Gula had a career-high 22 points in today's matchup, scoring them all in the second half as he shot 7-8 from the field, a perfect 4-4 from beyond the arc and converted all his free throw shots while having four rebounds and an assist. Zvorsky also had a career-high in scoring as he had 16 points while grabbing five rebounds, an assist, a block, and a steal for the Colonels. Lesko and Merrifield rounded out the double digit scoring as they got 16 and 11 points respectively, with Lesko leading the team with eight rebounds and three steals while Zvorksy tied for the team lead with three assists alongside Argento.
Wilkes will look to make it two conference wins in a row as the Colonels travel on the road to face Misericordia University on Wednesday, February 8 at 6:00 p.m. for MAC Freedom action.
