Sophomore guard Mark DeMonaco (New Castle/New Castle H.S.) (left) buried a 30-foot three-pointer with 0.6 seconds to play to lift the Westminster College men's basketball team to a 94-93 victory at Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) rival Thiel College in Greenville this afternoon. The Titans, who remain unbeaten and in sole possession of first place in the PAC with the win, improved to 11-10 overall and 6-0 in league play. The Tomcats dropped to 6-15 overall and 1-5 in the PAC. After a 2-8 start, Westminster is now 9-2 in its last 11 games since the turn of the calendar year.
Thiel led 30-23 with 6:52 to play in the first half when the Titans put together a 23-6 run to close the half, giving Westminster a 10-point (46-36) halftime advantage. Westminster led by as many as 15 points (53-38 with 18:18 to play) early in the second half when the Tomcats rallied. Thiel slowly chiiped away at the lead, finally tying the game at 80-80 on a tip-in by Ryan Singleton with 5:34 to play. Trailing 91-90 with 38 seconds to play, a Daryl Moore layup put Thiel ahead 92-91 with 25 seconds left. After a missed Titan three-pointer, D.J. Gambridge of Thiel made 1-of-2 free throws with 13 seconds left to build the lead to 93-91. Thiel got an offensive rebound on the Gambridge miss and Moore was fouled with six seconds left, giving the Tomcats a chance to seal the game. However, Moore missed both free throws and the Titans collected the rebound, setting up DeMonaco's last-second heroics.
All five Titan starters reached double figures in the victory, led by junior forward Pat O'Connor (Pittsburgh/Keystone Oaks H.S.) (right) with a team-high 20 points including five three-pointers. DeMonaco added 18 points including four treys, while junior guard Chris Hatch (Canfield, OH/South Range H.S.) added 11 points and both junior guard Ed Pagley (New Castle/New Castle H.S.) and sophomore forward Dom Joseph (New Castle/New Castle H.S.) added 10. Sophomore guard Brian Fadden added team-best totals of seven rebounds and five assists off the bench for Westminster. Thiel was paced by Moore with a game-high 26 points.
Westminster continues PAC play on the road this Wednesday, Feb. 11, as the Titans travel to face local conference rival Grove City College in Grove City, Pa., at 8 p.m.
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