CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Thiel College men's basketball team were unable to finish a second half comeback against Case Western Reserve University as the Tomcats fell 83-79 on Wednesday night.

The Tomcats roared back from being down eight with 3:03 left in regulation to narrow the gap to 81-79 on a Nyric Gosley (Williamsport, Pa./Williamsport) three-point jumper with 45 seconds remaining. The Tomcats caused a turnover on the ensuing Spartan possession to give them a chance to push the game to overtime with just 11 seconds, Thiel missed a jumper on their possession than grabbed the offensive rebound but turned it over to seal the game in favor of CWRU.

Thiel held a 58-50 lead at the 14:38 mark of the second half before Case Western went on a 14-3 run to take the lead, 64-63 with 8:08 remaining, the Tomcats never regained the lead from that point.

Leaders for the Tomcats in the non conference loss were sophomore guard Daquan Simmons (Capitol Heights, Md./Central) with a game-high 17 points. Simmons went a perfect five for five from beyond the arc. Ahmad Tejumola (Waldorf, Md./Saint Charles) and Alonzo Brown (Largo, Fla./Pinellas Park) each racked up double-digit scoring performances as they finished with 13 and 12 points, respectively. A trio of Tomcats including Terrance Holloway (Farrell, Pa./Farrell), Anthony Byrd (Plantation, Fla./Blanche Ely) and Andre Williams (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Boyd H. Anderson) each scored eight points on the night as well.

The Spartans had four players in double-figures and shot 30 of 57 (52%) from the field for their fourth win of the year. With the 83-79 road loss, Thiel falls to 2-4 overall.

The Tomcats will have both their first game at Beeghly Gymnasium and Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) game of the year on Saturday as they host the visiting Titans of Westminster College in a PAC clash, tipoff is set for 3:00 p.m.