GREENVILLE, Pa. (Nov. 12) -- The Thiel College Men's Basketball team collected its first win of the season with a 75-69 toppling of Penn State DuBois Wednesday evening in a non-conference clash from Maenpa Court at Beeghly Gymnasium.
The Tomcats improve to 1-1 on the year while the Nittany Lions dip to 1-3.
The visitors pulled ahead 49-46 with 12:52 remaining in the contest before a
Kadenne Kemp (Inglewood, Cali./Northgate) layup off a
Khamari Accursio-Harris (Jupiter, Fla./Jupiter) assist kickstarted a 22-3 Tomcats run over the next 7:35 that grew Thiel's lead to 68-52, its largest of the contest. The Blue and Gold were 8-of-12 from the field in the run along with 5-of-5 at the stripe and 1-of-1 from deep. The visitors made a late push, getting as close as 5 down with 54 ticks remaining, but the home side held on for the victory.
Kemp logged all 11 of his points on the night in the run. He finished 5-of-7 and had a pair of boards. Accursio-Harris logged a team-high-tying 15 points while grabbing a team-leading 10 boards for his first double-double of the season. He also dished out three assists.
Thiel opened the second half on a 6-0 run with buckets from Accursio-Harris,
Mike Brown (Clinton, Md./Gwynn Park) and
Anthony Henderson II (Miramar, Fla./Somerset Academy) to pull ahead 38-34 after trailing 34-32 at the intermission.
Brown tied Accursio-Harris for the team lead with 15 points. He was 5-of-14 shooting and 5-of-7 at the charity stripe. Henderson II pitched in eight points and swiped a career-and-game-most four steals.
Kenny Ermat (Lauderdale Lakes, Fla./Boyd Anderson) contributed a solid all-around performance with 6 points, five boards, a team-leading four assists and a trio of steals.
John DiCecco (Indianapolis, Ind./Lebanon) logged 9 points on 4-of-5 and 1-of-1 from deep to go with two blocks and boards each.
Thiel shot 50 percent from the field (33-of-66). The Blue and Gold had just seven turnovers while DuBois had 18.
The Tomcats held a 22-4 edge in points off turnovers and a 21-4 advantage in fast-break points. The home side logged 60 points in the paint.
Thiel is back in action Friday against Penn State Shenango at 6 p.m. in Westminster's Buzz Ridl Classic.
