COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Wilkes University men's basketball team already have some hardware to bring home this season, as they defeated hosts Ursinus College 100-99 to win the Bear Bash Tip-Off Tournament 100-99 at D.L. Helfferich Hall on Saturday afternoon.

The Colonels improve to 2-0 on the year, while Ursinus fall to 1-1.

The first few minutes of the game were a back-and-forth affair, but with the score tied at 12 Ursinus pulled out an early lead with a 20-point run to gap the Colonels 32-12. A Colin Ackerman (Manasquan, NJ/Wall Township) three finally got the Colonels back on the board, but the Bears maintained that gap for most of the first half. With just under four minutes to play, a pair of Travis Linn (Harrisburg, PA/Central Dauphin) free throws cut the gap to 14 points with the score 53-39 Ursinus, but the hosts held the gap and took a 66-49 lead into halftime.

The Colonels opened the second half carving into the Ursinus lead with 12 points from Lesko and six from Eli Becker (Palmyra, PA/Palmyra) to help cut the deficit to 10 points 79-69 with 13 minutes remaining. An 11-4 Ursinus run over the next three minutes pushed the lead back to 19 points for the Bears, 90-73. A layup and another triple from Ackerman kick-started the Colonel offense, as they once again chipped away at the host lead. Six more points from Becker, with contributions from Cayden Merrifield (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) and Joey Zvorsky (New Cumberland, PA/Cedar Cliff) cut the lead down to three with just under four minutes remaining, and a Becker three with two minutes remaining tied the game at 97.

With 56 seconds to play, Ursinus' Nick Nocito hit a layup to give the hosts the lead once more, but a Zvorsky steal with nine seconds on the clock fed Lesko who hit the game-sealing three with four seconds left to give Wilkes the lead. Merrifield then blocked the layup attempt on the other side of the court and Becker pickpocketed Nocito off the inbound, giving the Colonels the massive victory.

Lesko led the Colonels with a career-high 40 points, seven rebounds, and two assists, and was named tournament MVP and a part of the all-tournament team. Becker was also named to the all-tournament team and like Lesko hit a career-high 20 points with seven rebounds of his own, sharing the team-high. Ackerman and Jack Argento (Hershey, PA/Hershey) were the other two Colonels in double-digit scoring with 10 points each. Merrifield and Zvorsky shared the team-high in assists with six.

Wilkes bested Ursinus in points off of turnovers, scoring 34 to the Bears' 18.

Trevor Wall led Ursinus with 38 points, while Mohamed Toure led with eight rebounds. Nocito led the team with ten assists.

The Colonels remain on the road for their next contest, as they travel to La Plume, Pa. to face Keystone College on Wednesday, November 13. Tip off is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.