Thanks to strong play from Mike Simmons, Tom Kromka and David Stephen, the Bearcats were victorious by a score of 80-58 over Thiel College in the quarterfinals of the Presidents' Athletic Conference playoffs.

Simmons equaled his career high with 19 points and set a new personal mark with five steals, while Kromka added 19 points and Stephens poured in 18 to lead Saint Vincent (22-4).

Simmons had the hot hand for the Bearcats in the early going, hitting back-to-back threes that put the hosts in front, 8-2.  After a Thiel score, Simmons drove the lane and scored on a layup to give SVC a 10-4 advantage.
 
Five points from Stephen helped to build the advantage to seven, 15-8, at the 13:42 mark of the first half.
 
Strong play by Stephen helped increase the lead to double digits, as he drove to the hoop for an uncontested layup at the 6:16 mark to make the score 23-13.  A Shemar Bennett layup followed less than 20 seconds later, giving the Bearcats a 12-point lead.
 
The Bearcat offense continued to roll, with Andrew Reed hitting a three, followed by a turnaround jumper by Simmons.  After a three by the Tomcats, Kromka scored five straight points, on a layup and a conventional three-point play.  Stephen continued the run with a three, making the score 38-18, then went coast-to-coast for a layup that made it a 22-point game.
 
Saint Vincent went into the half with a 42-20 advantage, with Stephen (16) and Simmons (12) accounting for two-thirds of the Bearcat points.
 
After struggling to make shots in the first half (30%), Thiel started the second half with a trio of three pointers, reducing the Bearcat lead to 16, at 47-31, but five quick SVC points, punctuated by a three from the corner from Simmons, made the score 52-31 near the 16-minute mark.
 
The lead hovered remained the 20-point mark for the next several minutes.  A three by Reed made it 62-39, and a conventional three point play by Ryan Dutton later made the score 65-41 at the midway point of the half.  

From that point, the outcome was never in doubt, as the Bearcats continued to play well on both sides of the court the rest of the way.

Shemar Bennett led the team in rebounds on the night with 9, while Dutton added six.  Dutton also drew three charging calls on the night, a statistic that does not show up in the box score.

Nyric Gosley led the Tomcats with 16 points, while Alonzo Brown tied Bennett with 9 rebounds.  

Saint Vincent advances to the semifinal round of the playoffs on Thursday night (February 21) and will host Chatham University at 7PM in the Carey Center.  Chatham scored in the closing seconds to defeat Washington & Jefferson by one point to advance to the next round.