PRESIDENTS' ATHLETIC CONFERENCE DeMonaco's 3-pointer gives Westminster 94-93 win over Thiel

By BILL ALBRIGHT
VINDICATOR SPORTS CORRESPONDENT
GREENVILLE -- While it wasn't the shot heard around the world, it was one of the biggest shots for Mark DeMonaco with the Westminster College basketball team.
DeMonaco, a 5-foot-8 sophomore guard and former New Castle High standout, took a pass from Chris Hatch and drained a 3-pointer with 12.7 seconds remaining to give the Titans to a dramatic 94-93 win over Thiel, in a Presidents' Athletic Conference showdown at Rissell-Beeghly Gymnasia.
"I just go out and play the game and see how it comes out," said DeMonaco. "I thought [Hatch] was going to shoot it. He threw it up to me and there wasn't enough time to pass it to anyone else up the court so I took the shot. In that type of situation, everyone likes to have the ball in their hands."
Hatch delivers
Hatch, a 5-foot-11 junior guard from South Range High, finished as one of five Titans in double figures with 11 points, and set the table for DeMonaco's heroics by draining a jumper with one minute remaining and the Tomcats ahead by one.
"I just had the ball out on top which is usually where Mark has it," said Hatch. "I took a glance at the shot clock and I knew we needed a good shot. I came off a screen and was able to hit the jumper. We have four or five guys on this team who we feel comfortable taking that shot, but I guess today was my turn."
Hatch said there was no particular play the Titans had in mind to get the game-winner.
"I guess there were about six seconds or something like that on the clock," Hatch said. "When I brought the ball down court, I saw him [DeMonaco] going up the side of the court and nobody was near so I gave it to him. He is just an unconscious shooter. He can miss 10 in a row and come right back and hit the next 10. When he gets it going, you know it is going in and today he just made a great shot."
Top scorers
Leading the Titans in scoring were Pat O'Connor with 20 points and DeMonaco with 18, while Ed Pagley and Dom Joseph, both from New Castle High, added 10 each.
For Thiel (7-14, 1-5), Daryl Moore led all scorers with 26 points, while D. J. Gambridge came off the bench to pour in 25, 16 in the first half.
Titans (11-10, 6-0) coach Larry Ondako knew that playing on the road wasn't going to be easy.
"We knew it was going to be tough to play here and the kids were ready to go," said Ondako. "If we weren't [ready to play], we would have been in deep trouble."
Ondako was quick to point to some of the players off the bench who held things together in the first half.
"When Mark was having foul problems and some of our veterans weren't playing well, John Lauterbach comes in and does a great job as did Micah [Delo]," he said. "I reminded them that our game is to get up and down the court and shoot 3s for 40 minutes did. We played 40 minutes of our ball, we stayed close, threw in a 3 and won the game."