The Cougars (10-15, 8-8 PAC) needed the win to make the PAC playoffs and with Neumann’s 68-62 loss at Cabrini College Wednesday night College Misericordia jumps up to fourth place and will host #5 Marywood University on Saturday in a first-round playoff game.
Senior guard Josh Gerloff opened the scoring with a layup on the break and junior Chris Talley put the Crusaders up 5-0 with a 3-point play at 18:22. Misericordia battled back to tie the score at 9-all on a 9-4 run capped by five straight from Little. The Cougars opened up a 6-point lead, the largest of the half, 17-11 led by four points from senior Mike Morak.
The Crusaders scored the next four points on back-to-back layups to pull within two points with 9:07 left in the half and eventually tied the score at 26-all on a driving layup from Lamar Brickus with 12 seconds to play. Misericordia turned the ball over on the ensuing inbounds and Tony Rezkowski closed the half hit one from the line when Talley fouled him rebounding Zach Straining’s last second miss.
The scored was tied three times early in the second half the last time on a Mike Brock jumper midway through a 15-2 Crusaders run that turned a 32-36 deficit into a 47-38 lead, the largest of the night for the Crusaders. The Cougars took just over three minutes to make the gap disappear as Brown scored seven points during a 15-3 run that put the guests up 53-50 with 6:55 left in the game. They pushed their lead to as many as six points, 58-52, with 3:39 left, but Alvernia came back with eight of the next 10 to tie the score at 60 on a corner 3 from Talley with 2:14 to go.
Little and Brock traded free throws and Little nailed a 17-foot jumper with 1:18 left to put the Cougars up 63-61. Morak missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 25 seconds left, but Straining missed a corner 3 under 10 seconds. Brock ran down the rebound, but his pass to the wing was stolen by Rezkowski who cruised in for the layup sparking a celebration from the Cougars’ bench as time expired.
Alvernia (16-9, 10-6 PAC) will receive a first-round bye as the second seed in the PAC Tournament. The PAC Tournament will commence as follows:
Saturday, Feb. 19
#6 Neumann College @ #3 Cabrini College TBA
#5 Marywood Unviersity @ #4 College Misericordia TBA
Tuesday, Feb. 22
Highest remaining seed @ #1 Gwynedd-Mercy College TBA
Lowest remaining seed @ #2 Alvernia College 8:00 p.m.