WAYNESBURG, Pa. -- Senior Chace McKinney (Boardman, Ohio/Kennedy Catholic) scored a team-high 17 points as the Thiel men's basketball team topped Waynesburg 72-64 on Wednesday night at the Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse.

Thiel, who has now won nine-straight over the Yellow Jackets of Waynesburg dating back to 2008, improves to 7-6 and 4-3 in Presidents' Athletic Conference play. The Jackets fall to 6-9, 1-6.

McKinney went 6-of-8 from the field, including 3-of-5 from three, while also grabbing three rebounds and blocking four shots.

Senior Ladell Trotty (Cleveland, Ohio/Lutheran East) added 14 points on a near perfect 7-of-8 shooting, while sophomore Kamran McCaskill (Carol City, Fla./Miami Beach) added 12 points, five rebounds, five assists and one steal.

The Tomcats never trailed in the contest, setting the tone early by racing out to a 20-6 lead on a three from McKinney with 13:40 left in the first half. Thiel took its largest lead of the game, 18, on a jumper from Trotty some seven minutes later. The Jackets closed out the half with four straight points though, cutting the Tomcat lead to 13, 40-27 heading into the half.

The Tomcats once again ran their lead back up to 18 on a lay-up by Trotty with 12 minutes left to play in the game, but the Jackets countered with an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 10, 54-44, with 8:49 remaining.

The Jackets would get no closer than eight points the rest of the game.

Thiel was 27-of-56 (51 percent) from the field, while Waynesburg was 23-of-61 (37.7 percent).
The Tomcats also shot 40% from the three-point line on 6-of-15 shooting, the highest percentage they have shot, when shooting ten or more threes, in a game this season.

Tim Loomis coached Tomcat teams have fared particularly well against Waynesburg, as the seventh-year coach now has a career record of 12-2 versus the Yellow Jackets.
With the win, Loomis also moves into sole possession of second place all-time for wins by a head coach in Thiel basketball history. The win is his 74^th as head coach, passing Charles “Bud” Manes.


The Tomcats will be back in action again on Saturday, when they hit the road to face Grove City at 3 p.m.