GREENVILLE, Pa. – The Thiel College men's basketball team suffered their first loss of the 2016 season on Saturday in a 79-77 overtime defeat to the Thomas More Saints in a Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) contest at Beeghly Gymnasium.
 
The Tomcats trailed by as much as 13 in the second half and clawed back to force overtime after Josh Lumbus (Cleveland, Ohio/John Hay) stripped the ball from Sawyer Pauly after a rebound, passed the ball up the Tyreik Burton (Lewes, Del./Cape Henlopen) and then Mert Ozkaynak (Izmir, Turkey/T.C. Williams) converted a layup on Burton's outlet pass on the fast break with 22 seconds remaining in regulation.
 
The back-and-forth overtime period went to the Saints when Damion King drained his only points of the game on a three-pointer with .7 seconds left in the game after a lay-in on the previous Tomcat possession by Burton with eight seconds left in overtime.
 
Burton tallied a career-high 31 points for the Tomcats. Burton also notched a game-high six assists along with four rebounds. Burton went a perfect 8-of-8 from the free-throw line and 10-of-20 from the field, including hitting three three-pointers.
 
Lumbus, Ozkaynak and Nyric Gosley (Williamsport, Pa./Williamsport) each collected double-digit point totals for the Tomcats. Gosley and Ozkaynak picked up 13 and 10 points respectively off the bench while Lumbus added 11 points. Clandell Cetoute (Wellington, Fla./Wellington) pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds and swatted four shots in the loss.
 
Austin Young led the Saints with 17 points.
 
The Tomcats (5-1, 1-1 PAC) will look to go back to their winning ways when they host the Waynesburg Yellow Jackets in PAC action on Wednesday, Dec. 7. Tip off will be at 7:30 following the women's game.