GREENVILLE, Pa. (Dec. 3) -- The Thiel College Men's Basketball team erased a 12-point halftime deficit en route to a thrilling 61-58 win over Hiram College Wednesday evening in the 2025-26 Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) opener on Maenpa Court at Beeghly Gymnasium.
The Tomcats improve to 4-4 on the year and 1-0 in league play while the Terriers dip to 3-3 and 0-1 in PAC competition.
Thiel led 57-54 on a
Khamari Accursio-Harris (Jupiter, Fla./Jupiter) free throw with 1:06 remaining. The Terriers notched the next 4 to lead 58-57 with 36 seconds remaining before back-to-back Accursio-Harris free throws put Thiel up 59-58 with 16 ticks left on the clock.
Mike Brown (Clinton, Md./Gwynn Park) added two late free throws with .4 seconds remaining before the Terriers' last second 3-point try at the buzzer was blocked by Accursio-Harris to give Thiel the win.
Accursio-Harris notched a team-high-tying 13 points and tied for the game high with seven boards. He dished out a contest-best and career-most five assists while logging a pair of blocks.
The Tomcats used an extended 25-6 run over 7:27 to jump ahead 46-41 with 10:19 remaining in the contest.
Anthony Henderson II (Miramar, Fla./Somerset Academy) started the run with a layup as Thiel tallied 8 straight points to get within 6 at 35-29. After a pair of Hiram baskets,
John DiCecco (Indianapolis, Ind./Lebanon) canned a 3-ball to kickstart an 11-0 Thiel spurt that had three 3-pointers from DiCecco and a
Kadenne Kemp (Inglewood, Cali./Northgate (Pa.)) layup to push the Tomcats ahead 42-39 with 11:42 remaining. A
Mike Brown (Clinton, Md./Gwynn Park) bucket capped the run to make it 46-41.
DiCecco tallied a team-most-tying 13 points on 3-of-7 from deep and 5-of-12 from the field. He tied with Accursio-Harris for the game high in boards with seven. Kemp posted a career-best 11 points on 5-of-8 and grabbed four rebounds.
Henderson II pitched in 8 points on 4-of-7 while swiping a game-high-tying two steals. Brown added 6 points, four boards and three helpers.
Defense was the name of the game in the first half as the score was knotted at 2 at the under-16 media timeout. Neither side reached 10 points until the 8:22 mark of the half. After trailing by as many as 14 points in the first 20 minutes, Thiel notched the last 6 of the half, the last 2 coming on a
Ryan Grant (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Cardinal Gibnons) buzzer-beater layup, to get within 31-19 at the break. Grant finished with 4 points in 4 minutes off the bench.
After going 8-for-36 (22.2 percent) from the field in the first half, the Blue and Gold were 17-of-28 (60.7 percent) in the second half.
The Tomcats held the edge in second-chance points (13-4) while points in the paint were even at 34. Thiel grabbed 15 offensive boards, its second highest total of the season.
Men's Basketball is back in action Saturday for a 3 p.m. PAC tilt at Westminster.
