MEADVILLE, Pa. (pacathletics.org) -- Led by four players in double figures, Chatham University came away with a 76-73 victory Saturday night at Allegheny College to capture their second Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Men's Basketball Tournamant Championship before a packed house at the Wise Center in Meadville.
The conference crown is the second for the fourth-seeded Cougars (17-11) and head coach David Richards, who also won the league tournament as a four seed in 2019.
Following the win, Chatham sophomore guard Blaine Gartley (Pittsburgh, Pa. | Mt. Lebanon) was named the PAC Tournament Most Valuable Player, who averaged 14.7 points and 9.7 rebounds over the course of the Tournament.
As the winner of the PAC's Championship Tournament, Chatham will receive the league's automatic qualifying bid to this year's Division III Championship Tournament. Forty-four conferences have been granted automatic qualification to this year's 64-team championship. The selected Division III Championship teams as well as the first and second round site selections will be announced Monday, February 27 at approximately 1 p.m. First and second round games are scheduled for Friday-Saturday, March 3-4.
Saturday, February 25 (Championship Game)
No. 4 Chatham at No. 2 Allegheny
Final: Chatham 76, Allegheny 73
David V. Wise Center - Meadville, Pa.
Both Allegheny and Chatham came out scorching hot, with the Gators leading 16-12 after just five minutes of play ... The two high-powered offenses kept up the scoring throughout the first half, but it was the Cougars who went into the break with a one-point lead, thanks in part to sophomore Isaiah Smith (AMbridge, Pa. | Lincoln Park), who netted 14 points in the first half ... It was as tight as can be for the entirety of the second half, as there were eight lead changes in the half and neither team led by more than six points ... The Cougars took the lead for good at 72-69 on a three-pointer by senior Marcus Cintron (Grove City, Pa. | Grove City) with 2:12 to play ... The Gators moved within a point at 74-73 with 25 ticks on the clock on a three by Preston Turk (New Castle, Pa. | Neshannock) ... Chatham added insurance on two free throws by junior Simon Boyer (Hampton, Va. | Hampton Roads Academy) to make it 76-73 and then survived two Allegheny three-point attempts in the closing seconds to come away with the win and the PAC championship ... Leading four Cougar scorers in double figures was graduate student Nick Bomar (Bethel Park, Pa. | Bethel Park) with 16 points, while Smith scored 14 points, all in the first half, to go along with three triples and three assists to go along ... Gartley finished with 12 points and pulled down seven boards and was named PAC Tournament MVP, while first-year James Thomas (Sharpsville, Pa. | Sharpsville) dropped eight points and pulled down nine rebounds ... For the Gators, Turk fired in 21 points, while Caden Hinckley (Boise, Idaho | Mt. Lebanon-Pa.) had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Thursday, February 23 (Semifinal Round 1)
No. 4 Chatham at No. 1 W&J
Final: Chatham 87, W&J 61
Salvitti Family Gymnasium-Washington, Pa.
W&J saw their hopes for a second straight PAC title ended by the same Chatham team the Presidents defeated to win the crown in last year's championship game ... The Cougars opened the game on a 15-2 run, thanks to solid defense and strong rebounding, and kept its foot on the gas for the rest of the first half, shooting 53 percent (17-32) over the first 20 minutes to enter the break with a 42-21 lead. ... The Cougars maintained a hefty cushion throughout the remainder of the contest, leading by as many as 29 points ... The Cougars, who won the rebounding battle (48-36), held the Presidents to 1-for-20 from three-point range just one night after Chatham's women's team didn't allow a triple against W&J (0-23) in the same building ... The Cougar offense was guided by junior Simon Boyer (Hampton, Va. | Hampton Roads Academy), who was 12-for-12 from the foul line, and sophomore Blaine Gartley (Pittsburgh, Pa. | Mt. Lebanon), who had 26 and 21 points, respectively ... Freshman James Thomas (Sharpsville, Pa. | Sharpsville) pulled down 17 rebounds, while senior Marcus Cintron (Grove City, Pa. | Grove City) netted 14 points and graduate Nick Bomar (Bethel Park, Pa. | Bethel Park) tallied 11 ... W&J's lone scorer in double figures was senior Kyran Mitchell (Reading, Pa. | Berks Catholic), who totaled 22 points and four assists in the defeat.
Thursday, February 23 (Semifinal Round 2)
No. 6 Thiel at No. 2 Allegheny
Final: Allegheny 106, Thiel 66
David V. Wise Center - Meadville, Pa.
Thiel was coming off an impressive upset at #3 Geneva in the quarterfinals, but chances of a second upset were quickly dashed, as the Gators never trailed the Tomcats after Allegheny senior Caden Hinckley's (Boise, Idaho | Mt. Lebanon (Pa.)) first bucket in the opening minute ... It remained a relatively close game until Allegheny ended the first half on a 27-7 run that put the Blue and Gold ahead 53-33 heading into the break ... After shooting an incredible 57 percent (20-35) from the floor, including 63 percent (12-19) from the arc in the opening half, the Gators did not slow down after the break ... They shot 58 percent (21-36) from the field and put up another 53 points to complete the win ... Every starter reached double figures, led by Andre Wilder (Beaver Falls, Pa. | Lincoln Park), who only missed one shot, as the junior finished 11-of-12 (91.7%) overall in posting a 28-point, 12-rebound double-double ...Hinckley was one rebound shy of a double-double and added five blocks to his 21 points and freshman Ryan Lang (Sarver, Pa. | Knoch) made six-of-eight (75.0%) of his three-pointers en route to 22 points ... Thiel was led by freshman Elijah Harden (Sharon, Pa. | Kennedy Catholic), who tallied a team-high 20 points while junior Marlon Ellerbee (Temple Hills, Md. | Oxon Hill) recorded 10 points ... In his final game for the Tomcats, graduate Ahmad Tejmola (Waldorf, Md. | Saint Charles) recorded a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds and finished his Thiel career with the 10th-most points (1,108) and third-most rebounds (872) in program history.
Tuesday, February 21 (Quarterfinal Round 1)
No. 8 Grove City at No. 1 W&J
Final: W&J 85, Grove City 68
Salvitti Family Gymnasium-Washington, Pa.
Freshman Matt Seidl (Pittsburgh, Pa. | North Hills) and senior Kyran Mitchell (Reading, Pa. | Berks Catholic) combined to score 47 points to lift the top-seed W&J to an 85-68 decision over eighth-seeded Grove City ... The victory was the 20th of the year for the Presidents, marking the second straight season they have reached that mark and just the fourth time in program history ... Grove City opened the game with the first six points, but their lead disappeared behind a 26-7 surge by the Presidents and the home team would take a 40-29 halftime lead ... The upset-minded Wolverines would chip away through the first nine minutes after halftime and when Ben Cano (Greenville, Pa. | Greenville) scored with 11:36 left, W&J's lead was down to 52-49 ... The Presidents responded with a 13-0 run over the next two-plus minutes and their lead would be in double figures the rest of the game ... Seidl led all scorers with 25 markers in the win, while Mitchelll posted an impressive line with 22 points, six rebounds, four steals and four blocks ... Junior J.R. Mazza (Bridgeport, W.Va. | University) also reached double digits with 12 ... For the Wolverines, Cano (16 points, 10 rebounds) and sophomore Chase Yarberough (Litiz, Pa. | Warwick), who had 10 points and 10 boards, posted double-doubles and freshman Kyle Randle (Willowick, Ohio | Eastlake North) had a career-best 12 points.
Tuesday, February 21 (Quarterfinal Round 2)
No. 7 Saint Vincent at No. 2 Allegheny
Final: Allegheny 79, Saint Vincent 74
David V. Wise Center - Meadville, Pa.
Playing in their first PAC Tournament contest since returning to the conference this year, Allegheny held on for the close win over Saint Vincent ... Tuesday's triumph marks Allegheny's first in the postseason since the 1998-99 season when the Gators reached the North Coast Athletic Conference title game ... Allegheny broke a 12-12 tie with a pair of three-pointers midway through the first half and took a 39-34 lead into halftime ... The Gators led by as many as 11 five different times, including 75-64 with less than three minutes left ... Saint Vincent graduate student Shemar Bennett (Lauderhill, Fla. | Nova) brought his team back with five straight points to cut the deficit to 75-71 ... A Gators' basket made it 77-71, but Allegheny missed four straight free free throws and when SVC sophomore Mike Iuzzolino (Sewickley, Pa. | Canterbury-Conn.) hit a desperation three with 5.6 seconds to play, it was a three-point Gator lead at 77-74 ... Allegheny finally closed out the win with two free throws from sophomore Luke Barker (New Castle, Pa. | Struthers-Ohio) for the program's first ever PAC Tournament win ... Four Gators scored in double figures, led by junior Andre Wilder (Beaver Falls, Pa. | Lincoln Park) with 19, while freshman Isaiah Portis (Medina, Ohio | Norwayne) hit for 16 off the bench ... Barker chipped in 13 and senior Caden Hinckley (Boise, Idaho | Mt. Lebanon) finished with 11 points, 10 boards and four blocks ... Saint Vincent's efforts were led by Bennett with 23 points and 17 boards, Iuzzolino with 20 points and freshman Jaden Gales (Pittsburgh, Pa. | Bishop Canevin) scored 17.
Tuesday, February 21 (Quarterfinal Round 3)
No. 6 Thiel at No. 3 Geneva
Final: Thiel 99, Geneva 84
Metheny Fieldhouse - Beaver Falls, Pa.
Thiel shot 51 percent from the floor for the game and scored 50 points in the paint to upend Geneva on their home floor and advance to the semifinal round ... The Tomcat attack, which featured three players with 20+ points, overshadowed a near-historic performance from Geneva's Lyle Tipton (Glenside, Pa. | Phil-Mont Academy), who entered the game as the PAC's leading scorer ... The contest was close early before a 9-0 Tomcat spurt gave them a double-digit lead for the first time and a banked three-pointer just before the halftime horn from Tomcat freshman Elijah Harden (Sharon, Pa. | Kennedy Catholic) made it a 47-37 Thiel lead at the break ... Geneva would make a couple runs in the second half to try to get back into the game, but the Tomcats answered every time ... Geneva sliced the lead to 79-74 with five minutes to play, but Thiel responded with seven consecutive points and then clinched the win at the foul line, making 12-of-14 from the charity stripe in the final 2:19 of the contest ... Harden led the victorious Tomcats with 26 points, while junior Marlon Ellerbee (Temple Hills, Md. | Oxon Hill) recorded a double-double with 21 points and a game-high 12 rebounds ... Senior Beni Lavodrama (Washington, D.C. | Phelps ACE) set a career-high with 21 points and graduate student Ahmad Tejumola (Waldorf, Md. | Saint Charles) had 17 points and seven rebounds ... In the setback, Tipton made 14-of-26 from the floor, 8-of-15 from the arc and all 10 of his free throw attempts to pile up 46 points, tied for fifth-most in Geneva single-game history ... Also reaching double figures was junior Ryan Rachic (Prince Frederick, Md. | Calvert) with 15 and senior Isaac Massie (Cross Lanes, W.Va. | Homeschool) with 10.
Tuesday, February 21 (Quarterfinal Round 4)
No. 5 Westminster at No. 4 Chatham
Final: Chatham 85, Westminster 76
Athletics and Fitness Center-Pittsburgh, Pa.
A balanced Chatham attack featured five players in double digits, as the Cougars posted a nine-point win over Westminster to advance to Thursday's semifinals ... Chatham stormed out to a 17-8 lead six minutes into the game and the Cougars would construct a 42-33 halftime lead ... The lead would grow to as early as 17 in the second half when senior Marcus Cintron (Grove City, Pa. | Grove City) scored seven straight points to make it a 60-43 Chatham lead ... Westminster would have an answer, using a 14-4 run to cut the Cougar lead down to 68-62 with eight minutes left ... Cintron would bury two more threes in an enusing 9-2 Chatham run to extend the lead back to double digits and the Titans never came closer than seven points again ... During his flurry of three-pointers in the second half, Cintron became Chatham's all-time leading scorer, surpassing the previous mark of 1,236 career points held by Isaiah Brown ... Cintron led all scorers in the game with 21 points, including 15 in the second half, while junior Simon Boyer (Hampton, Va. | Hampton Roads Academy) compiled 16 points, six rebounds and five assists ... Junior Geoffrey Helm (Blairsville, Pa. | Greensburg Central Catholic) added 12 and sophomore Blaine Gartley (Pittsburgh, Pa. | Mt. Lebanon), who had 11 points and 10 boards, and freshman James Thomas (Sharpsville, Pa. | Sharpsville), who recorded 10 points and 11 rebounds, posted double-doubles ... The Titans also had three players score 14 each, led by senior Austin O'Hara (Girard, Ohio | Girard) with 14-point, 10-rebound double-double ... Also notching 14 points was senior Justin Bofenkamp (Warren, Ohio | Warren JFK) and junior Reese Leone (Beloit, Ohio | West Branch).