BETHANY, W.Va. (Dec. 10) -- The Thiel College men's basketball team rolled past Bethany College 83-72 Tuesday night in a near-wire-to-wire Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) victory at Hummel Fieldhouse.

The Tomcats rise to 5-5 overall and 4-4 in PAC play. The struggling Bison extend their losing streak to four while dropping to 5-4 on the year and 0-4 in league play.

Bethany notched the first 2 points of the game on free throws before a Mike Brown (Clinton, Md./Gwynn Park) 3-pointer at the 18:45 mark gave Thiel the lead and kickstarted a 12-0 spurt. Brown had two 3-pointers in the stretch while Gabriel Gonzalez (Merida, Venezuela/Southwest Miami) had a pair of jumpers and Rob Thomas (Pittsburgh, Pa./Penn Hills) had two free-throws. The Tomcats held the lead for the remaining 38:45 of the game. 

Gonzalez posted a team- and career-high 20 points on 8-of-12 from the field and 3-of-4 at the line. He added one rebound, block and steal each.

Thomas, fresh off his second PAC Newcomer of the Week win in three weeks, notched 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting and 7-of-7 at the charity stripe while collecting six boards and two steals. Brown contributed 11 points, tied his career best in assists (five) and had a pair of rebounds and steals each.

The Tomcats took a 39-34 lead into the break before opening the second half with a 7-2 run to grow the lead to 10 (46-36) with 16:51 showing on the clock. The Blue and Gold led by at least 7 points and as many as 14 points for the next 12 minutes before a Bethany layup cut the lead to 66-61.

A Thomas layup off a Marlon Ellerbee (Temple Hills, Md./Oxon Hill) assist followed by a Thomas steal and dunk on the following possessions grew Thiel's lead back to 9 (70-61) with 4:06 remaining. The two sides exchanged baskets back and forth before a Khamari Accursio-Harris (Jupiter, Fla./Jupiter) dagger 3-ball made it 77-67 with 1:25 left to play. The visitors went 6-of-6 at the line in the final minute to seal the 11-point win and hand Bethany its fourth straight conference loss, the last three of which have come at home.

Ellerbee finished with 13 points on 3-of-6 and 7-of-7 at the line. He dished out a game- and season-best six assists while coraling four boards. Accursio-Harris pitched in 7 points on 3-of-6 from the field and 1-of-2 from deep while pulling down a game-high eight rebounds, dishing out three assists and collecting two steals.

Logan Lentz (Greenville, Pa./Greenville) and Anthony Henderson II (Miramar, Fla./Somerset Academy) each grabbed three rebounds with the former adding 6 points and the later contributing 5.

The Tomcats shot a season-best 90 percent (18 of 20) at the free-throw line in the win. The Blue and Gold outpaced Bethany in fast-break points (29-10) and points off turnovers (21-8). The Bison turned the ball over 17 times to the Tomcats' 12.

Men's basketball returns to action in the new year for a battle at Division II Indiana University of Pennsylvania on Jan. 2 at 7:30 p.m.