Junior guard Ed Pagley (New Castle/New Castle H.S.) led four double-digit scorers with 21 points to lead the Westminster College men's basketball team into sole possession of first place in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) with a 103-81 home win over visiting Bethany College. The Titans posted their seventh straight win to improve to 10-9 overall and a perfect 5-0 in league play. The Bison, which were tied with the Titans for first plac in the PAC entering the game, fell to 13-5 and 4-1 in tilt play.
The Titans were handicapped in the first half as leading scorer Mark DeMonaco (New Castle/New Castle H.S.), averaging 18.5 ppg entering the contest, picked up a pair of quick fouls and was limited to five scoreless minutes of action. However, the Titans raced to an 11-1 lead in the first 3:23 and never looked back, as Westminster took a 10-point lead (44-34) into intermission. The Bison cut the lead to six points (48-42) with 18:11 to play but would get no closer, as the Blue & White led by as many as 29 points (103-74) before emptying the bench in the closing minutes. Westminster forced Bethany into a season-high 38 turnovers in the win.
Pagley shot 9-of-14 from the field while adding four assists and four steals to pace Westminster. In addition to Pagley, sophomore forward Dom Joseph (New Castle/New Castle H.S.) posted 19 points and a team-high six steals in the win, while sophomore guard Brian Fadden (New Castle/Mohawk H.S.) and junior guard Chris Hatch (Canfield, OH/South Range H.S.) added 14 and 11 markers, respectively. DeMonaco and Joseph each posted a team-high six rebounds, while DeMonaco and junior forward Pat O'Connor (Pittsburgh/Keystone Oaks H.S.) shared team assist honors with four apiece.
After a 2-8 start, Westminster is 8-1 in its nine games since switching to a run-and-gun offense and full-court trapping defense at the turn of the new year, and the Titans have scored over 100 points in seven of thos contests (averaging 108.9 ppg). On defense, Westminster has forced at least 23 turnovers in each of the nine games.
The Titan cagers take a break from conference action this Monday, Feb. 2, as Westminster hosts Pitt-Greensburg in a non-conference contest at Buzz Ridl Gymnasium. Tip-off is slated for 8 p.m.
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