WILKES-BARRE – With the regular season now in the books, the Wilkes University men's basketball team enters its first Landmark Conference playoff tournament as the four seed. For their first-round matchup, they welcome No. 5 seed Juniata College to the Marts Center for a 7:00 p.m. tip-off at the Marts Center.
 
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The Colonels finished the regular season with an 18-7 overall record and an 11-7 record in Landmark play after a 55-76 defeat against Goucher in the regular season finale on Saturday. They finished the season with a 3-2 record in their last five games.

Lucas Lesko (Northampton, PA/Northampton) leads the team in scoring averaging 16.2 points per game, the fourth-best mark in the conference. Cayden Merrifield (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) and Trent Fisher (Sellersville, PA/Pennridge) are the other two Colonels averaging double-digits, averaging 14.8 and 14.4 ppg respectively, putting the duo seventh and ninth in the conference.

Fisher dominates the stat sheet for the Colonels, leading the team in rebounds (9.8 rpg, leads conference) and assists (3.2 apg, sixth in conference), and blocks (1.5 bpg, second in conference).  

Joey Zvorsky (New Cumberland, PA/Cedar Cliff) leads the team in field goal percentage at .575 while Matthew Davidheiser (Reading, PA/Exeter Township) leads the team from beyond the arc with a .412 three-point percentage and Merrifield leads the team with 43 made threes.

The Colonel defense continues to be one of the premier units in the Landmark, led by the aforementioned Fisher and Lesko with 1.5 and 1.4 blocks per game respectively, the second and third-best averages in the conference. Zvorsky leads the team with 1.7 steals per game.

The defense ranks second in the conference in defensive efficiency (66.1 ppg allowed), opponent field goal percentage (.403) and opponent three-point field goal percentage (.319). They also average the second-most defensive rebounds in the conference at 28.5 defensive rebounds per game.

Offensively, the team sits second in field goal percentage (.459), third in offensive efficiency (75.0 ppg), and sixth in three-point field goal percentage (.328).

Juniata come into the Marts Center with a 15-10 overall record and the same 11-7 conference record as Wilkes. Thanks to the Colonels' sweep of Susquehanna in the regular season, they beat the Eagles to the higher seed via tiebreaker.

Chase Husted leads the Eagles averaging 19.5 ppg, the second-most in the conference. Evan Eisenhart is the other player with double-digit scoring, averaging 13.0 ppg.

Husted also leads Juniata with the conference's best field goal percentage at .608, and leads in rebounding averaging 9.0 rpg (third in the conference). Eisenhart is the team's top three-point shooter with a .372 percentage from beyond the arc. His 64 three-pointers made are the second-most in the conference.

Mason Hardy leads the team averaging 3.8 assists per game, the third most in the conference, and also sits fifth in the conference in steals averaging 2.2 per game.

The Juniata defense ranks third in the conference in defensive efficiency (66.2 ppg allowed), opponent field goal percentage (.414) and opponent three-point field goal percentage (.323), just behind the Colonels in all categories.
Offensively, the Eagles rank seventh in offensive efficiency (68.3 ppg), team field goal percentage (.427), and three-point percentage (.325).

The teams split their regular season meetings, with Wilkes winning the first contest at the Marts Center 83-77 and Juniata winning on their home court 56-65. The Colonels have been at their best when at home with a 9-3 record at the Marts Center, while Juniata are 5-5 in road contests.

The winner of this game will go on to play at top-seeded Catholic University in the semifinals on Thursday, February 22^nd at 5:30 p.m.

On the other side of the bracket, No. 3 seed Susquehanna University host Goucher, and the winner of that game will travel to play No. 2 seed Drew University.

The winner of those semifinal matchups on Thursday will meet in the conference championship on Saturday, February 24^th, hosted by the highest remaining seed in the tournament.