Wilkes-Barre, PA - It was a homecoming of sorts as Cedar Crest traveled to MAC opponent Wilkes University on Monday evening. Wilkes' first-year Head Coach Chris Heery was formerly the Head Coach at Cedar Crest before moving on to the staff at Muhlenberg College until this year.

But Heery and his Colonels would show no love to the Falcons in a physical 75-62 Wilkes victory that featured a combined 43 personal fouls.

Cedar Crest handled the Colonels well early on, even leading by as many as eight points, 16-8, when junior Megan DeMutis (Norristown, PA/Kennedy-Kenrick Catholic) drained a three-pointer with just over 9:00 left in the first half. But a Wilkes timeout and subsequent wholesale substitution of five pairs of fresh legs upped the defensive intensity and inaugurated an eight-minute Falcon scoring drought. By the time Cedar Crest scored again just :47 before the break, Wilkes had forced five turnovers and rattled off 16 unanswered points to go up 28-18 at halftime.

The Colonels kept up the full-court defensive pressure in the second half and pushed the ball as much as possible while subbing liberally to exploit the Falcons' short bench. The margin rose to as many as 25 points at the 8:11 mark. Eventually though, Wilkes' aggressive defense began to cost them in terms of fouls, and Cedar Crest spent the last 12:35 of the second half in the bonus. From that point on, the Falcons outscored the Colonels 31-30, with 14 of those points coming from the free throw line.

That would not be enough to close the gap however, and Cedar Crest went home with the 13-point loss.

Senior Lizzy Sunderhaus (Hamilton, OH/Stephen T. Badin) led all scorers with 25 points, including 2-2 from beyond the arc and 5-5 from the free throw line. She also led all rebounders with 22 boards. Sophomore Amber Wehry (Klingerstown, PA/Tri-Valley Jr/Sr) had 10 points and 10 boards.  The Colonels' Elena Stambone led her team with 20 points, and Allison Walsh had 11 boards. Cedar Crest shot just 28.4% to Wilkes' 40.3%, although the Falcons blistered the net from the charity stripe, shooting 87% (20-23) to Wilkes' 38.5 (10-26).

Sunderhaus' rebounds brought her career total to 1180 and moved her past Tiffany Stewart '02 into second place on the career rebounding list.

Cedar Crest's record is now 3-15 and remains 1-9 in the Colonial States Athletic Conference, while Wilkes improves to 5-12 overall. The Falcons will host Valley Forge Christian College for a non-conference game on Wednesday, January 25th, at 7:00 PM.