GREENVILLE, Pa. (Jan. 3) -- The Thiel College Men's Basketball team erased an 18-point first-half deficit and led with 5.3 seconds remaining before a full-court driving buzzer-beater layup from Trey Killens with 0.1 seconds remaining sealed the 69-68 victory for Heidelberg University in non-conference action Saturday afternoon on Maenpa Court at Beeghly Gymnasium.
A
Kadenne Kemp (Inglewood, Cali./Northgate (Pa.)) layup kickstarted a 7-2 spurt with 3:58 remaining that was capped with a pair of
Kenny Ermat (Lauderdale Lakes, Fla./Boyd Anderson) free throws with 5.3 seconds left to make it 68-67 Tomcats (4-6, 1-1 Presidents' Athletic Conference) with 5.3 seconds left. Following a pair of Student Princes (7-5, 1-2 Ohio Athletic Conference) timeouts, Killens inbounded the ball and got it on the pass back as he took it coast to coast for the win.
Kemp posted his first career double-double with a career-and-game-most 18 points on 8-of-12 while grabbing a career-and-contest-most 10 rebounds. Ermat also set career highs in points (10) and rebounds (seven).
An
Adrian Llamo (Naples, Fla./Naples) 3-pointer at the 13:25 mark of the second half made it 51-43 and spearheaded a 21-8 run over the next 7:30 that pushed the Blue and Gold ahead 61-59 with 6:02 left. Kemp capped the run with a layup off a dish from
Khamari Accursio-Harris (Jupiter, Fla./Jupiter).
Lllamo notched a career-best 14 points while going 4-of-5 from beyond the arc and 5-of-7 from the field. Accursio-Harris added 13 points and seven boards while distributing a career-most six assists.
The visitors held their largest lead at 32-14 with 7:39 left in the first half before a
Das Sanders (Dallas, Texas/Fort Worth Christian) turnaround jumper led to Thiel outscoring Heidelberg 16-8 for the rest of the half to get within 40-30 at the break.
The Blue and Gold tallied the first 8 points of the second half to extend the run to 24-8 and get within 2 at the 17:47 mark on a Llamo 3-ball.
Sanders recorded 6 points, grabbed five rebounds, dished out three helpers and had a pair of blocks.
John DiCecco (Indianapolis, Ind./Lebanon) added seven points on 2-of-3 from deep.
Heidelberg was 7-of-11 (63.6 percent) from deep in the first half. The Blue and Gold limited the Student Princes to 1-of-12 (8.3 percent) from beyond the arc in the second half. Thiel was 11-of-30 (36.7 percent) from the field in the first half before going 15-of-26 (57.7 percent) in the final 20 minutes.
The home side held edges in second-chance points (12-3), bench points (19-13) and points in the paint (34-30).
The Tomcats were without starters
Mike Brown (Clinton, Md./Gwynn Park) (injury) and
Anthony Henderson II (Miramar, Fla./Somerset Academy) (flu) as well as
Logan Lentz (Greenville, Pa./Greenville) (injury).
Thiel is back in action Wednesday evening for a home PAC clash against Allegheny at 7:30.
