HUNTINGDON, Pa. – The Wilkes University men's basketball team extended their win streak to four games as they bested the Juniata College Eagles on the road 65-45 on Saturday afternoon.

Wilkes improves to 8-1 on the year with a 3-1 record in Landmark play, while Juniata falls to 0-8 with an 0-4 record against conference opponents.

Juniata opened the scoring with a 5-0 run, before six unanswered points from Lucas Lesko (Northampton, PA/Northampton) gave the Colonels the lead. Lesko scored the Colonels first 10 points of the game, helping pull the blue and gold to a 15-10 lead with 6:27 to play in the first half. A 6-2 Eagle run brought the home team within a point 17-16, but not before Lesko hit a three-pointer to restore the cushion. That sparked the Colonel offense to an 11-2 run, giving them a 28-18 lead going into halftime.

Two triples from Juniata kept the Eagles close with the Colonel offense to start the second half, drawing the hosts within six points in four minutes, but with the score 34-28 the Colonels found their stride on an 11-0 run to extend the lead to 45-28. From there, the Colonels cruised to their third Landmark victory, breaking the 20 point barrier with five minutes remaining on a Lesko layup. Late in the game, head coach Izzi Metz emptied the bench, and the Colonels picked up the win with all active players seeing playtime.

Lesko led the way with his third double-double of the year, dropping 30 points with 11 boards and five assists. Jack Argento (Hershey, PA/Hershey) also reached double-digit scoring with 14 points, while Cayden Merrifield (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) led the team with six assists.

Tyler Lapetina and Tre Yawn led Juniata with nine points each. Jayden Bilger led the team off the bench with six rebounds.

Wilkes return to the court for one more game in 2024, as they travel to face cross-town rival King's College on Monday, December 30. Tip-off against the Monarchs is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.