PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Westminster College men's basketball team won, 62-61, at Chatham University in its Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) opener Wednesday night.
The Titans had an 18-point lead with under nine minutes remaining in the game, however, Chatham got within one point with 14 seconds left. Westminster sealed the win after the Cougars were unable to get a shot off as time expired.
Senior
Deontay Scott (Youngstown, OH / East) led Westminster with 17 points (8-of-11), to go along with a game-high nine rebounds. Freshman
Isaac Stamatiades (Elkridge, MD / Avalon) registered a career-high 12 points (5-of-6). Sophomore
Cameron Kane-Johnson (Niles, OH / Niles) and junior
Marco Delorenzo (Canfield, OH / Canfield) earned nine and eight points, respectively. Senior
Jarret Vrabel (Canfield, OH / Canfield) and sophomore
Lloyd Chatman (Columbus, OH / Reynoldsburg) each scored seven points. Vrabel added eight boards, while Stamatiades had a career-best six rebounds. Scott and Stamatiades each had a team-best three steals.
The Titans started the game with a 9-0 lead, capped off with a jumper by Scott, with 15:37 on the clock. Westminster maintained its lead until Chatham tied the game at 23 with 6:20 left. The Cougars took their first and only lead of the first half (29-28) when Nasir Alexander made a pair of free throws with 2:58 remaining. The Titans went back in front and led 32-31 at intermission. In the second half, Kane-Johnson gave the Titans their largest lead of the game (56-38) with a jumper at the 8:49 mark. The Cougars, however, went on a 23-6 run to cut Westminster's lead to 62-61 with 14 seconds left. After a missed Titan free throw with six seconds remaining, Chatham had a chance to tie or win the game but was unable to get the shot off before the buzzer.
The Titans outshot the Cougars 45.5% (25-55) to 32.7% (18-55) and outrebounded Chatham 41-30.
Westminster improved to 5-1 overall and 1-0 in the PAC, while Chatham dropped to 2-3 overall and 1-1 in the league.
The Titans return to action Saturday, Dec. 2 for a home PAC game against Washington & Jefferson College at 3:30 p.m.
