Sophomore guard Mark DeMonaco (New Castle/New Castle H.S.) led four double-digit scorers with a game-high 31 points today, pacing the Westminster College men's basketball team to a 99-95 road win against Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Bethany College in in Bethany, W.Va. Westminster closed the 2003-04 regular season at 13-12 overall, 8-2 in PAC competition. The Bison dropped to 17-8, 7-3 PAC, with the loss.
The Westminster win secured the PAC regular season title for the Titans, who will now be the top seed and have home court advantage throughout next week's PAC Tournament. The win marked the first conference regular season title for the Titan basketball team since sharing the top spot in the NAIA Keystone-Empire Collegiate Conference (KECC) in 1997-98.
Bethany jumped out quickly, taking a 16-8 lead four minutes into the contest. The Titans rallied to take a 25-24 lead with 10:40 to play in the period, but the Bison regained the lead for most of the half and took a 50-46 lead into halftime. Bethany held a single-digit lead for most of the second period until Westminster re-took the lead 89-88 with 4:50 to play on a DeMonaco three-pointer. Trailing 95-94 with 1:23 left, DeMonaco gave the Titans the lead for good with a pair of free throws to go up 96-95. After a Bison turnover, sophomore forward Dom Joseph (New Castle/New Castle H.S.) hit a driving layup with 33 seconds left to put Westminster up three (98-95). After another Bethany turnover, Westminster sealed the win when sophomore guard Brian Fadden (New Castle/Mohawk H.S.) made 1-of-2 free throws with 13 seconds left.
DeMonaco buried seven three-pointers en route to the game-high 31-point scoring total. Other Titans to reach double figures in scoring included juniors Pat O'Connor (Pittsburgh/Keystone Oaks H.S.) and Ed Pagley (New Castle/New Castle H.S.) with 17 points each, while Joseph added 10. O'Connor hauled in a team-best 10 rebounds, while DeMonaco and Joseph tied for team assist honors with four apiece.
After earning a first round bye, the Titan men's basketball team will host a PAC Tournament semifinal game against an opponent TBA at Buzz Ridl Gymnasium this Thursday, Feb. 26 at 7:30 p.m.
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