The Misericordia Cougar basketball teams competed in the Mac Freedom Tournament this week where they each lost in semi-final competition. The men’s team faced Arcadia University and Stevens University, while the women went up against Wilkes University and DeSales University.

On the men’s side, the Cougars, a sixth seed, upset the third-seeded Knights of Arcadia in a 98-70 blowout.

The Cougars were led by three players scoring 20+ points each. Nick Hornung finished with 23 points shooting 10-13 from the field and 3-4 from three and Kevin Lazdowsky had 25 points on 10-13 shooting and going 3-3 from three.

The Cougars were led by a 30-point performance from Elijah Rosenthal, who shot 10-15 from the field and hit a school record 10 threes, breaking the previous record of nine held by current men’s basketball coach Willie Chandler.

The Cougars shot 19-26 from behind the three-point line in their best performance of the year, advancing to the semifinals against Stevens University.

After the upset win over Arcadia in the quarterfinals, the Cougars traveled to Hoboken, New Jersey to play the Stevens Ducks in a game that ended the season for the men as they fell, 75-64.

The Cougars were led by Joe Baldachino who had 20 points on 7-13 shooting and who went 6-10 from beyond the arc. Nick Hornung also finished with 15 points and Kevin Lazdowsky had 10 points. Nate Kreitzer had eight points and six assists in the Cougars final game of the season.

The women’s team went 1-1 on the week. In the quarterfinals, the Cougars beat the Wilkes University Colonels, 51-43.

They were led by Alyssa Bondi with 14 points and Gianna Delfino with 11 points. Melina Santacroce was the hero of the game for the LadyCougars as she consistently kept pressure on the Lady Colonels by constantly crashing the boards and playing hard defense, fishing with 13 total rebounds, four of them offensive.

The women saw a similar fate as the men once they played in the semifinals, falling to the DeSales Bulldogs, 57-54.

The Lady Cougars were led by Melina Santacroce as she continued her big week, finishing with a double double at 11 points and 13 rebounds. Of those 11 points, one was a game-tying three with 3:49 to knot the game at 50-all but the performance wasn’t enough to carry the Lady Cougars to victory. Elizabeth Fasti and Alyssa Bondi had nine points each for Misericordia.