Titans cruise past Thiel easily 92-74

Westminster is now one win from clinching the top seed in the tournament.
By BILL ALBRIGHT
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. -- One down and one more to go. That is the scenario facing the Westminster College men's basketball team as they attempt to finish as the top seed heading into the Presidents' Athletic Conference tournament.
Wednesday night at Buzz Ridl Gymnasium, the Titans (17-7, 9-2) defeated Thiel (5-18, 2-9), 92-74, setting up a showdown Saturday with Bethany.
"For four years since I have been the head coach here, we have struggled up there," noted Westminster's Larry Ondako. "We have won on buzzer-beaters, halfcourt shots and it has always been a tough 40-minute game. Thiel is just a tough place to play, but fortunately for us, we have handled them pretty easily down here. Our guys did a good job tonight and I think we are a better team now than we were up there. I am just happy that our guys came out and played the way they did tonight, not looking ahead to Saturday."
Thiel coach Tim Loomis was disappointed in many of the things his squad did.
"We played their style of game," said Loomis. "We ran down the floor, missed layups, left shooters open and they would run down the floor and make layups. After watching us tonight, you would never know that we had a game plan coming in. Sometimes that gets embarrassing because you work hard in practice on how to guard guys and prepare for a game, and then it doesn't happen. We never got into a rhythm and it was never much of a game."
Needed low scoring game
When the score got into the 70s, Loomis knew his club was in trouble.
"You have to play this game in the 60s to have much of a shot to win," Loomis said. "I just thought after the first eight minutes, we played right into their hands by playing their style of game. When you are playing a team that has guys who shoot 3s and you let them shoot 3s, you are not going to stay in the game."
Westminster will earn the top seed with a win Saturday. The Titans defeated Bethany, 78-66, earlier this season.
"This is how you would like it to happen," Ondako said. "We are playing well at home and we have already beaten them once this season down there so you would like to think would build up our confidence level going into the game. I just think that Saturday's game will be a real good one."
After ties at 11 and 13, the Titans put their transition offense in high gear to build up a 45-27 halftime lead.
"Dom [Joseph] made a big steal on a double team, got a deflection and a bucket," said Ondako. "After that, we were able to get a couple quick turnovers Chauncey [Whitlow] made a couple big shots and Greg Rosatelli made some outstanding passes. I don't think he scored in the first half, but he had six assists and no turnovers. From there, we just kind of broke it open and fortunately, we didn't have a lapse to let them back into the game."
Herrmann gets 1,000th point
Thiel's Joe Herrmann reached the 1,000-point plateau. He scored 26 Wednesday night giving him 1,023 for his career.
"He works hard for everything he gets and he played hard tonight," said Loomis. "He has a bad knee but he still went out there and gave us a good effort.
"[Brandon] Mirizio played hard tonight and as a team, we played much harder in the second half than in the first half."
Whitlow (Wilson) led Westminster with 19 points, while Craig Hannon (Union) added 18. Joseph (New Castle) finished with 15 points and Ryan Ricketts had 10.
Geno Bianco and Mirizio each scored 14 points for Thiel.