GROVE CITY, Pa. (January 24) - The Thiel College men's basketball team suffered a 73-66 setback in Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) action Saturday afternoon, falling to Grove City College 73-66 at Grove City College Arena.
The first half of action was one made up of runs for both teams. The Wolverines (7-10, 1-2) jumped out to a 6-0 lead with just over three minutes gone, but the Tomcats (6-12, 0-3) rattled off 11 straight points to take an 11-6 lead with 14:18 to go in the first.
Grove City countered with five straight points and regained a 16-11 lead with 10:32 left, but Thiel countered with a 13-2 outbreak and went up six, 24-18, with 7:48 remaining in the opening half. A J.D. Collar jumper tied the game four the fourth time at 30-30 and a Tanner Prosser layup with 4:15 left in the first gave the Wolverines a 32-30 lead. Grove City closed out the final 4:38 by outscoring the Tomcats 6-2 and went into intermission sporting a 36-32 lead.
Thiel came out strong in the second half, outscoring the Wolverines 8-1 over the first 2:19 to take a 40-39 lead. Grove City regained its lead, going back up by seven, 47-40, with just over five minutes gone in the second half.
Grove City extended its lead to as many as 11, 60-49, on a Ryan Eller jumper with just under nine minutes to play. The Tomcats responded with an 11-1 surge and on a layup by freshman guard Chris Kwolek got to within one, 63-62, with 3:32 remaining.
The Wolverines closed the game out by outscoring the Tomcats 8-4 to record their first PAC win of the season.
The Tomcat bench had a strong showing, outscoring their Wolverine counterparts by a 16-3 margin. Thiel also finished with a 41-32 advantage on the boards, but shot just 17.4 percent (4-of-23) from three-point range.
Eller paced the Wolverines with 23 points. Mike Lukcic finished with 17 points on 5-of-9 shooting to go with a team-best seven rebounds and Prosser added 12 points, six rebounds and four assists.
Kwolek tied a career high with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-7 from three-point land. Senior forward Mike Banach had 15 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two blocks while senior forward D.J. Gambridge added 12 points and seven boards.
The Tomcats return to action at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 28 when they travel to Bethany College to take on the PAC rival Bison.
Newspaper Box Score Thiel vs Grove City 1-24-04 3:10 p.m. at Grove City, Pa. -- GCC Arena At Grove City, Pa. -- GCC Arena GROVE CITY 73, THIEL 66 THIEL (6-12, 0-3 PAC) Chris Kwolek 8-12 0-0 20; Mike Banach 6-10 3-4 15; D.J. Gambridge 5-7 2-3 12; Percy Sweeting 4-10 0-1 8; Daryl Moore 2-8 2-2 6; Ryan Singleton 1-5 1-2 3; Stephen Laird 1-3 0-0 2; C.J. Hunt 0-2 0-0 0; Damien Williams 0-3 0-0 0; Justin Townsend 0-4 0-0 0; Bradley Bowman 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 27-65 8-12 66. GROVE CITY (7-10, 1-2 PAC) Ryan Eller 9-13 4-7 23; Mike Lukcic 5-9 4-4 17; Tanner Prosser 3-8 5-6 12; Matt Phillips 4-10 1-2 10; J.D. Collar 3-9 2-4 8; Mark Smith 1-1 0-0 2; Chuck Cotherman 0-1 1-2 1; Bobby Glass 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 25-52 17-25 73. Thiel......................... 32 34 - 66 Grove City.................... 36 37 - 73 3-point goals-Thiel 4-23 (Chris Kwolek 4-7; Mike Banach 0-1; Daryl Moore 0-3; Ryan Singleton 0-2; Stephen Laird 0-2; C.J. Hunt 0-2; Damien Williams 0-2; Justin Townsend 0-3; Bradley Bowman 0-1), Grove City 6-10 (Mike Lukcic 3-3; Matt Phillips 1-1; Tanner Prosser 1-2; Ryan Eller 1-1; Bobby Glass 0-1; J.D. Collar 0-2). Fouled out--Thiel-Daryl Moore, Grove City-None. Rebounds-Thiel 41 (D.J. Gambridge 7; Mike Banach 7), Grove City 32 (Mike Lukcic 7). Assists-Thiel 10 (Daryl Moore 5), Grove City 13 (Tanner Prosser 4). Total fouls-Thiel 22, Grove City 15. A-1200 Tanner Prosser has 1,100 points in his career (14th place all-time) Grove City snaps 4-game regular season losing streak to Thiel