Photos By Michael Lipscomb
By Marquis Frias
The men’s basketball team lost a nail biter to Wilkes on Saturday, dropping an 87-81 decision to Wilkes in Landmark Conference play at O.W. Houts Gymnasium.
The matchup between heavyweight Landmark squads saw 12 lead changes and six ties. The two squads entered play tied for 3rd in the conference standings, representing an important battle for playoff seeding.
Susquehanna (12-9 overall, 9-5 Landmark) won the previous matchup 67-64 earlier this season; another close game was expected. From tip-off, the two teams once again traded blows and lit up the scoreboard. Both Wilkes (16-5, 10-4) and SU ran similar schemes offensively, hunting 3-pointers while also feeding their forwards inside.
Wilkes forward Lucas Lesko, who entered the game as the conference’s second-best scorer, ended the first half with 14 points, while Susquehanna’s Billy Anderson had 12 points with two made 3-pointers. No team led by more than six in the first half as Susquehanna went into the locker rooms with a 44-42 lead.
The impressive shooting and all-class play from both teams’ big men continued in the second half. Late in the second half, Wilkes forward Eli Becker went on a 9-3 run by himself, including a big 3-pointer to give his team a five-point cushion.
After more back-and-forth action, Susquehanna cut the lead to three points and had a chance to tie the game with under 30 seconds left, but a devasting turnover and ensuing intentional foul free throws buried the River Hawks.
Lesko finished with 26 points and seven rebounds, while Anderson scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the losing effort.
“They had no answer for us, and we had no answer for them,” SU coach Frank Marcinek said. “I thought we got good looks; I thought we played good offensively, but we didn’t make shots.”
The loss slides SU down to fourth in the Landmark standings and will likely make their path back to the Landmark Conference title game much more difficult.
“We use every game going forward to try and learn from [it],” Marcinek said.
SU will host Lycoming at 7 p.m. Wednesday night.
