GREENVILLE, Pa. (Nov. 16) -- The Thiel College men's basketball team dropped their Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) opener 86-74 to Chatham University Saturday afternoon on Maenpa Court at Beeghly Gymnasium.

The Tomcats fall to 1-3 overall and 1-1 in PAC play. The Couagrs rise to 2-1 on the year and 1-0 in conference play.

Thiel opened the second half with a 13-6 spurt in the first 4:03 to trim the deficit to 13. Chatham extended the lead back to 18 with 14:08 remaining, but Thiel tallied the next 10 points to cut the deficit to 58-50 with 11 minutes to play. In total, Thiel used an extended 23-11 run to turn a 47-27 half-time deficit into a single-digit contest over the half's first 9 minutes.

The Cougars responded with an 11-3 spurt over the next 2:48 to grow the lead back to 16 (69-53) with 8:12 showing on the clock. The visitors held a double-digit lead for the remainder of the contest in route to the conference-opening victory.

Khamari Accursio-Harris (Jupiter, Fla./Jupiter) posted a career-best and team-leading 17 points, 9 of which came during the Tomcats' 9-minute run to open the second half. He finished 8-of-15 shooting, pulled down a game-best nine rebounds and made the Blue and Gold's lone 3-pointer in the contest.

Chatham jumped to an early 21-10 lead at the 12:18 mark of the opening half. The Cougars extended their lead as high as 22 points (44-22) in the first half thanks to shooting 56.3% (18 of 32) from the field and 41.7% (5 of 12) from deep.

The Tomcats held the edge in the second half by shooting 60% (18 of 30) from the field compared to Chatham's 40.6% (13 of 32). The home side held the visitors to just 14.3% (1-of-7) from deep in the second half.

Mike Brown (Clinton, Md./Gwynn Park) added 13 points, 7 of which came at the free-throw line, and a team-best four assists. Marlon Ellerbee (Temple Hills, Md./Oxon Hill) added 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting while pulling down four boards. Rob Thomas (Pittsburgh, Pa./Penn Hills) pitched in 8 points on 4-of-6 from the field.

Das Sanders (Dallas, Texas/Fort Worth Christian School) and Anthony Henderson II (Miramar, Fla./Somerset Academy) each had eight rebounds, with the former totaling 5 points and the latter adding 6 points.

The Tomcats return to action Wednesday when they host Allegheny in a PAC showdown at 7:30 p.m.