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By Steve Janik, Sports Information Assistant

Dillon Stith reached the 1000-point plateau as the Saint Vincent Bearcats took sole possession of first place in the Presidents' Athletic Conference with an 83-77 victory on the road at Bethany College.

Saint Vincent kept toe-to-toe with the host Bison in the first half. Starting out with a key 8-4 lead with 18:26 to play, JC Howard and Isaac Turner paced the offense early on with five and three points, respectively.
 
With just under 15:00 to play in the first, the Bison drew within two at 14-12 until Pat Jones hit a three to put them back up by five. However, the hosts would not back down so quickly as they would take their first lead of the game at the 12:50 mark following a short 5-2 run, Bethany led 19-17.
 
Starting on the defensive end, SVC would eventually regain the lead with Dillon Stith's hard block which helped transition the offense to a Sean Kett layup to make it a 30-28 lead with just over 6:00 remaining. Next, Pat Jones hit a dynamite three pointer to put the Bearcats up five only to be followed by a thunderous two-handed Stith slam dunk over two Bison defenders to put the visitors up 37-28 with about 4:00 left to play.
 
The Bearcats and Bison would trade baskets before going into the half with SVC up 41-33 led by Turner's 12 points. 

Bethany would start the second half with guns blazing, going on a 6-0 run to take the lead yet again (42-41) only to be answered immediately with a 6-0 SVC run capped off by a Turner trey, giving the Bearcats the 49-42 advantage with 14:26 left to play.

Throughout the next eight minutes, the two teams would trade possessions and baskets until Howard would drain a jumper making it 67-58, tying their largest lead of the game at nine.

The highlight of the second half came with 1:25 left and SVC leading 78-69 when Howard lobbed an inbounds pass to Stith over the basket for an alley-oop slam giving the Bearcats much needed momentum. *** WATCH THE PLAY HERE **  

Bethany would show signs of fight drawing back within four with just over 30 seconds left in regulation, however, they would be forced to foul, putting SVC at the foul line where they would convert to finish out the game; the Bearcats shot 29-37 from the charity stripe for the contest.

Leading Saint Vincent was Turner with 24 points and nine rebounds followed closely by Stith with 23 and six boards. Howard and Pat Jones were also in double figures with 15 and 10, respectively, while Howard also tallied four assists.

With the win, the Bearcats currently sit atop first place in the PAC standings as well as the only undefeated team in conference play at 12-2 (5-0). They next take to the floor Wednesday traveling to Geneva for another conference game.