Dave Plisko inflicted most of the damage for the Colonels, now 13-7 overall and 6-4 in the Freedom Conference, by scoring 29 of his career-high 31 points in the second half as Wilkes battled back from a 12-point deficit with 18:35 remaining. Junior forward Brian O’Donnell (Mahopac, N.Y./John F. Kennedy) paced the Royals, now 4-18 overall and 2-9 in league play, with 17 points and a game-high 17 rebounds and sophomore forward Bill Burke (West Pittston, Pa./Seton Catholic) and freshman guard Sean Clark (Spring Lake Heights, N.J./St. Rose/Kent-Conn.) added 11 and 10 points, respectively.
It was O’Donnell who dominated play in the first half, scoring 12 points and pulling down 11 rebounds as the Roiyals used a 28-14 rebounding advantage to build up a 38-29 halftime lead.
Early in the second half, O’Donnell picked up his third foul, which limited his play and allowed the Colonels to exploit the Royals down low. Wilkes continued to pound away down low and appeared to have momentum in its favor when Plisko scored six straight points to break a 59-59 tie and give the Colonels a six-point lead with 4:49 remaining.
Scranton battled back and took a short-lived one-point lead on sophomore guard Matt Snyder’s (Scranton, Pa./Scranton Prep) finger roll layup between three defenders with 39 seconds remaining. Plisko, who scored 16 straight points in the final nine minutes of play, answered immediately with a jump shot with 24 seconds left to give Wilkes a 67-66 lead.
With less than 10 seconds remaining, Royal freshman guard Mike McGowan (Lansdale, Pa./Lansdale Catholic) missed a driving layup in traffic and Scranton fouled immediately. After Rashawn Pressley missed the second of a two-shot free throw opportunity with 5.9 seconds left, Wilkes forward Greg Cardamone tipped the rebound to a teammate as the clock expired.
O’Donnell’s ‘double-double’ was his tenth of the season and the 27th of his career. He enters Saturday’s game against DeSales needing 11 points to become the 34th player in Scranton history to score 1000 career points and is only 19 rebounds shy of pulling down at least 200 for the third consecutive season.