SELINSGROVE, Pa. - The Wilkes University men's basketball team came up short in their first game since Thanksgiving break, falling to the Susquehanna University River Hawks 75-72 Wednesday night.

The loss drops the Colonels to 4-2 overall and 1-2 in Landmark play, while the River Hawks improve to 5-2 overall and 2-1 in Landmark play.

The start of the first half went well for Wilkes as they led 14-8 at the 14:23 mark after a made layup by Jack Argento (Hershey, PA/Hershey). However, Susquehanna went on a 17-2 immediately afterwards thanks to a parade of threes from AJ Lomax and KJ Carson to lead 25-18 with 8:03 left in the half.

That lead ballooned to 39-25 after another Carson three-pointer with just over two minutes to go, but the Colonels cut the deficit down to 43-33 at halftime. The Colonels shot 50% (14-28) in the first half, while Susquehanna shot 57.7% (15-26) from the field and hit 53.9% of their threes (7-13). 

Both teams went back-and-forth for the first 11 minutes of the second half with Susquehanna leading 64-54 with nine minutes left, but Wilkes went on an 8-0 run over the next four minutes to make it a two-point game. During that run Daniel Santaniello (Roaring Brook Twp., PA/Scranton Prep) and Lucas Lesko (Northampton, PA/Northampton) made their free throws, and Argento and Eli Becker (Palmyra, PA/Palmyra) hit back-to-back layups.

The River Hawks then responded with a three from Mario Castro Sanchez and a dunk from Brandon Lavitt off a turnover to push their lead back up to seven. Each side then traded free throws over the next few minutes as the River Hawks led 75-69 with just 30 seconds left in regulation.

Argento gave Wilkes life with a quick layup plus a foul and made a free throw to make it a three-point game with 15 seconds left, forcing Susquehanna to call timeout. Out of the timeout the River Hawks threw the ball out of bounds to give the Colonels one more chance to tie the game and force overtime, but Lesko missed a three in the corner at the buzzer and the River Hawks held on for a 75-72 win.

Becker led the Colonels in scoring with 18 points on a perfect 7-7 from the field, and Argento was right behind him with 17 points on 6-9 shooting. Castro Sanchez was the star for the River Hawks with 25 points on 7-11 shooting and 4-6 shooting from beyond the arc. The River Hawks as a whole shot 10-28 from three, while the Colonels shot just 3-17 from three.

The Colonels look to snap a two-game losing streak this Saturday on Dec. 6 against Catholic on the road. The game is scheduled for a 2 p.m. start time.