WAYNESBURG, Pa. (Jan. 31) -- The Thiel College Men's Basketball team pulled out a gutsy 55-52 win at Waynesburg University Saturday afternoon in Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) interdivisional action from Rudy Marisa Fieldhouse.
The Tomcats rise to 5-13 (2-8) while the Yellow Jackets dip to 6-15 (2-8). The Tomcats grabbed 27 offensive rebounds, the seventh-most in a game in team history, as they had more offensive boards than Waynesburg had total rebounds (26). Thiel finished with a 57-26 edge on the glass.
The victory snaps Thiel's nine-game losing skid and is the Tomcats third-straight series win and 7th in the last 8 meetings with the Jackets.
A
John DiCecco (Indianapolis, Ind./Lebanon) layup got Thiel within 1 at 49-48 with 4:32 remaining. DiCecco canned a 3-pointer with 2:10 left to push the Tomcats ahead 51-49 before a Jackets 3-ball on the following possession put the home side back up 52-51.
Kadenne Kemp (Inglewood, Cali./Northgate (Pa.)) connected on a layup after grabbing an offensive board to make it 53-52 with 1:19 to go.
Das Sanders (Dallas, Texas/Fort Worth Christian) converted a putback layup with 20 ticks left to make it 55-52 as Waynesburg's last-second 3-point attempt with a second remaining fell short to give the Tomcats the win.
Kemp had a team-most 14 points and game-high-tying 10 boards for his third double-double of the season. He finished 5-of-10 from the field and 4-of-4 at the charity stripe. DiCecco finished with 8 points and rebounds each while Sanders added 9 points and tied with Kemp for the game high with 10 rebounds, six of which came on the offensive glass.
A 3-ball from
Khamari Accursio-Harris (Jupiter, Fla./Jupiter) pushed Thiel ahead 32-28 at the 17:52 mark of the second half as the Tomcats opened the second half with 5-of-9.
Accursio-Harris pitched in 10 points and tied for the game high with two steals while dishing out a pair of helpers and snagging three boards.
The Tomcats ended the first half on a 6-0 run as
Logan Lentz (Greenville, Pa./Greenville),
Zech Lilly (Madison Heights, Va./Fork Union Military Academy) and Accursio-Harris each contributed to the scoring to put Thiel ahead 27-24 at the break.
Anthony Henderson II (Miramar, Fla./Somerset Academy) added 4 points and five boards to go with two assists.
Kenny Ermat (Lauderdale Lakes, Fla./Boyd Anderson) logged 4 points and six rebounds to go with a pair of blocks and helpers each.
The Blue and Gold held edges in second-chance points (26-8), bench points (17-12), points in the paint (24-22) and fast-break points (8-5).
Thiel is back in action Wednesday night for a 7:30 road clash with Hiram. The Tomcats bested the Terriers 61-58 in their first meeting on Dec.3 in Greenville.
