GREENVILLE, Pa. – The Thiel College men's basketball team beat the Chatham Cougars 84-73 in a Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) contest on Saturday.

Chatham jumped out to an early 9-5 lead behind two three-pointers from Malik Potter less than four minutes into the game.

Thiel fought to regain the lead behind a three-pointer from Daquan Simmons (Capitol Heights, Md./Central) and a Chima Omeihe (Lake Worth, Fla./Park Vista Community) layup. Once the Tomcats went up 14-13 with just over 13 minutes still to play in the first half they did not trail for the remainder of the game. 

Simmons, Gissenson Bonhomme (Sunrise, Fla./Westlake Preparatory) and Devin Christian (Mechanicsville, Va./Lee-Davis) powered a 7-of-12 effort from behind the three-point line to give Thiel a 40-25 lead heading into halftime.

The Tomcats led by as many as 21 points in the second half, but Chatham would not go quietly. The Cougars scored 17 points in a three-minute time span to cut Thiel's lead down to 62-54 with 10:04 remaining in regulation. 

Coming out of a timeout, Michael Ricks (Cleveland, Ohio/Cleveland School of Architecture and Design) made a layup to get Thiel's lead back up to a double-digit margin to hold a 64-54 lead with just over nine minutes left to play.

Chatham would claw their way back to cut the deficit to as little as seven points, however the Tomcat defense held strong down the stretch to preserve the win.

Offensively, Thiel had six players with double-digit point performances. The Tomcats were led by Ahmad Tejumola (Waldorf, Md./Saint Charles), who scored 14 points and shot 8-of-9 from the free-throw line. He grabbed 12 rebounds for his fourth double-double on the season.

Ricks finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Seven of his boards were offensive rebounds which paced the Tomcats' 25 second-chance points. Ricks also handed out a game-high seven assists.

Devin Christian (Mechanicsville, Va./Lee-Davis) recorded 13 points and shot 3-of-5 from behind the three-point line. Bonhomme finished with 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field.

Nyric Gosley (Williamsport, Pa./Williamsport) scored 11 points and shot 6-of-7 from the charity stripe. Simmons knocked down three three-pointers and made a foul shot for a total of 10 points.

Chatham was led by Will Sandherr, who scored a game-best 23 points.

The Tomcats will be back in action on Wednesday when they host the Grove City Wolverines. The PAC game is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.