GREENVILLE, Pa. — It's only the midway point of the conference season but Thiel is the only unbeaten men's basketball team left in the Presidents' Athletic Conference after its 77-64 win over visiting Westminster on Wednesday at Beeghly Gymnasium.
The win gives the Tomcats sole possession of first place with Thomas More, previously unbeaten in the PAC, losing to Bethany on Wednesday.
Part of currently having the top team in the conference comes with having the top player in
Blair Rozenblad (Youngstown, Ohio, Kennedy Catholic). The Tomcat junior kept up his pace of leading the conference in both points with 15 and a career-high 18 rebounds in the win. Last year's regional rookie of the year is averaging 18.2 points and 10.2 boards.
Four of the five Thiel starters reached double-figures with
Ladell Trotty (Cleveland, Ohio, Lutheran East) scoring a team-high 16 points on a phenomenal shooting night. He made seven of eight attempts from the field.
Lance Randall (Canfield, Ohio, Ursuline) and
Devon Adams (Philadelphia, Pa., George Junior Republic) scored 15 and 10 points, respectively.
Adams is third in the conference in assists per game and helped his average against the Titans with eight. He also had a decent night at the foul line, the one area the Tomcats struggled, making six of his eight attempts.
Anthony Harvey (New Castle, Pa., New Castle) wasn't far behind Adams with six assists off the bench.
Thiel led 6-0 early after a Rozenblad 3-pointer on the first possession, a technical foul free throw and a layup by Randall. All came with just over one minute ran off the clock.
Westminster wasted little time in erasing the deficit with a 7-0 run in the next three minutes. The 7-6 lead the Titans had after an Anthony Thomas layup would be their only lead of the game.
Randall responded to Thomas' layup with one of his own to give Thiel an 8-7 lead. Westminster tied the game at 12-12 with a Doug Smith 3-pointer, but Rozenblad scored on a layup at the other end of the floor and Thiel would lead the rest of the way.
The Tomcats led by as much as 14 in the first half and 25 in the second half. The Titans made one last run to cut the lead to 11 but never came close to a comeback.
Thiel held a large advantage in rebounds with 46 to Westminster's 30. The Tomcats also had a much better shooting percentage, hitting 57 percent of their shots compared to the Titans' 34 percent.
A matchup between the conference's top two teams will take place this Saturday at Beeghly Gymnasium as Thomas More comes to Greenville to play the Tomcats at 3 p.m.