NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. – The Westminster College men's basketball team won, 76-64, over Bethany College in Presidents' Athletics Conference (PAC) action at home Wednesday night.
Titan junior Daniel Ritter (North Lima, OH / South Range) scored a game-high 26 points off 10-12 shooting, including 6-of-7 beyond the three-point arc. His 10 made field goals and six threes both tied career-highs. Ritter has now scored a 20-point performance in three of the last four contests, including two-straight. Junior Isaac Stamatiades (Elkridge, MD / Avalon) registered his eighth double-double of the season (fourth-straight), as he scored 12 points to go along with a game-high 10 rebounds. Senior Blake Payne (Ashtabula, OH / Jefferson Area) also scored in double-digits for Westminster with 11. Senior Ricky Roth (Ellwood City, PA / Lincoln) dished out a game-high six assists. Senior Lloyd Chatman (Columbus, OH / Reynoldsburg) and junior Josh Hutcherson (Uniontown, OH / Uniontown Lake) added nine and eight points, respectively. Payne and Hutcherson each had six rebounds.
Westminster (10-6, 5-2 PAC) never trailed in the contest. The Titans took their first double-digit lead in the first half (16-6) after Ritter made one of his five first-half threes with 13 minutes left. Westminster had its largest lead of 19 points in the first frame (34-15) with six minutes left. Bethany (1-14, 0-6 PAC) cut Westminster's lead to single-digits and the Titans led 37-29 at intermission. In the second half, Westminster went back ahead in double-figures two minutes in and led by as much as 21 points three times, with the latest coming at 74-53 with four minutes to play.
The Titans outshot the Bison 46.9% (30-64) to 39.0% (23-59) and held a 41-33 advantage in rebounds.
Westminster is back on the court Saturday, January 18 with a 3 p.m. game at Grove City College.
