GREENVILLE, Pa. (Nov. 24) -- The Thiel College Men's Basketball team snapped a two-game skid with a 77-61 near-wire-to-wire win over Penn State Beaver Monday evening in non-conference action on Maenpa Court at Beeghly Gymnasium.
The Tomcats, who connected on 8-of-12 3-pointers and shot over 50 percent from the field, improve to 3-3 and extend their series lead of the Nittany Lions (3-6) to 11-2 all time.
Thiel took control of the game early as back-to-back
John DiCecco (Indianapolis, Ind./Lebanon) 3-balls gave the Tomcats an 8-3 advantage. A 10-0 Tomcats run grew the lead to 18-6 with 11:25 left in the first half as
Mike Brown (Clinton, Md./Gwynn Park) logged 7 points in the run and DiCecco canned another 3-pointer. The Tomcats led by as many as 20 in the half as they carried a 39-21 lead into the locker room.
The Tomcats shot 50 percent (15-of-30) in the opening half while going 6-of-9 from beyond the arc.
DiCecco tallied 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting and 3-of-4 from deep while grabbing six boards and dishing out a game-high-tying three assists. Brown led all scorers with 16 points on 5-of-10 and 2-of-4 from deep. He corralled four boards and tied for the game high with three helpers.
The visitors made a second-half push and got as close as 10 down at 47-37 with 11:31 remaining before a
Kadenne Kemp (Inglewood, Cali./Northgate (Pa.)) alley-oop slam from
Anthony Henderson II (Miramar, Fla./Somerset Academy) spearheaded a 9-2 Tomcats spurt to push the home side back ahead 56-39. A DiCecco slam dunk off a baseline drive at the 2 minute mark made it 73-59 and served as the dagger as Thiel went on for the 77-61 triumph.
Henderson II notched a career-high-tying 15 points on 4-of-7 from the field, 2-of-3 from deep and 5-of-6 from the charity stripe. He snatched seven boards and tied for the game lead with three assists. Kemp contributed 8 points and and a game-most eight boards off the bench.
Das Sanders (Dallas, Texas/Fort Worth Christian) notched 10 points on 5-of-10 and snatched five boards.
Kenny Ermat (Lauderdale Lakes, Fla./Boyd Anderson) and
Logan Lentz (Greenville, Pa./Greenville) each added 4 points in reserve.
Christian Davis (Washington, D.C./DC International) provided a late spark as he nabbed a career-most five rebounds, all of which came on the offensive glass, in 3 minutes of second-half action.
Thiel is back in action Sunday for a 3 p.m. non-conference tilt at Division II Edinboro.
